Changing Shape
by Average White Writer
Summary: Harry had always been a weird kid, and he didn't think that would be any different at Hogwarts either. New abilities, new rules, new Harry. Metamorph!Harry
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

* * *

Harry had always been a weird kid, and he didn't think that would be any different at Hogwarts either.

He was standing at the front of the great hall, thinking about how his muggle relatives would react to what he was seeing. He'd lived with his uncle, aunt and cousin for as long as he could remember but he'd never felt he really fit in with them. They prided themselves on being normal and Harry had never fit the picture they'd painted.

He was a freak in their eyes, all because he could do magic. Something he'd inherited from both of his parents, who he'd recently learnt had not died in a car crash but had died to save him.

He'd then learnt that he wasn't the only 'freak' and that he was going to a school with a load more of them.

Despite this Harry knew he'd be different, a freak among freaks.

"Potter, Harry." Professor McGonagall called from the from of the hall: it was Harry's turn to be sorted. He walked up to the front. The whole hall had gone silent, his lone footsteps echoing around the hall. From the corners of his eyes Harry could see people staring at him; he hated the attention all he wanted to do was change and hide in the crowd but he gathered his courage and continued the walk and sat on the stall.

He felt the professor place the sorting hat on his head before it slid down over his face, covering his eyes.

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh my goodness yes, I've never seen someone like you - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting… So where shall I put you?"

The voice had knocked him off guard, who would have thought that the hat would talk to you. He'd quickly recovered and was thinking which house he wanted to be in.

The twins had seemed nice, if a bit loud and boisterous on the train, and they seemed to think they was bound to go to Gryffindor. Maybe they should go there. But, there's bound to be nice people in the other houses as well he reasoned with himself. He then cast his mind back to his encounter with the Flint boy and, remembering that he was in Slytherin, decided that he didn't want anything to do with him. "Not Slytherin, not Slytherin." he told the hat.

"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the hat. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that - no? Well, if you're sure - better be GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the entire hall. He took off the hat and walked towards the Gryffindor table, trying not to show just how overwhelmed he was. He was so relieved that he'd not being put with the Malfoy idiot that he almost tuned the student population out. Unfortunately, his bubble was popped by an overly pompous red head trying to shake his hand, maybe he's one of twins brothers Harry thought as a hand was stuffed in his general direction.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr Potter, I'm Percy Weasley." Apparently he is Harry thought as he took the offered hand. Charlie, who he remembered helping him with his trunk at the station, was yelling "We got Potter." Over and over, which Harry thought was slightly odd, did that particular red head really think he mattered that much.

Now seated he watched the rest of the sorting. "Pumfrey, Helena" became a Ravenclaw and soon it was Fred's turn. Harry watched his friend from the train as the hat was lowered on to his head and taken off seconds later after he was declared a Gryffindor only to be followed by his brother almost immediately.

The pompous Weasley, who'd now sat himself next to Harry, congratulated his younger siblings. " Well done, Fred and George, excellent." he said before leaning over the small black haired boy to shake his brothers hands.

The sorting ended when "Zabini, Elizabeth" had become a Slytherin and professor McGonagall had taken away the sorting hat and it's stall. The man Harry recognised as Albus Dumbledore from his chocolate frog card, got to his feet.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you."

As the older man sat, the whole hall burst into applause. Harry didn't know if to laugh or cry - he guessed it was just one of the things he'd have to get used to it.

Turning his eyes away from the headmaster and to the table he saw that all the previously empty were now full of food. His eyes widened, just another thing to get used to. He'd never seen so many dishes in his life, everything from roast beef to mint humbugs: he made it his personal mission to sample everything.

All too soon the feast was over, all the food had disappeared and Dumbledore stood once again to speak to the school. "Ahem - just a few words now we are all fed and watered. I have a few start of term notices to give you. First years should know that the fore…" Harry stopped paying attention, it was only a few warnings: no forest, no magic in corridors, no going in a corridor on third floor: easy. He then told everyone to sing the school song, to whichever tune they liked. It sounded slightly odd, somehow ending up with all the different melodies working together to form something, sort of, nice: almost anyway.

"Ah, music," the aged professor said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

Percy jumped up and started shouting for the first years to follow him much to the annoyance of an older student with a 'P' badge on his robes. Percy was apparently unaware of the glare being directed at him and began to walk out of the hall. Not knowing the way himself, Harry began to follow the pompous prick. They went up a staircase, and then more stairs, they seemed to never to stop going up. Eventually they arrived at a portrait of a fat lady in a horrible pink dress.

"Password?" The portrait said, that was weird Harry thought, pictures don't normally speak outside of the TV.

"Caput Draconis." Percy the pompous boy replied and the portrait swung open to reveal a round room behind the hole in the wall. The room was big, with a bunch of squashy looking armchairs and sofas all facing the fireplace. And of course everything was red and gold, house colours, a bit too much in Harry's opinion.

A nameless prefect then snatched control away from Percy before she directed the girls to their dormitories through a door on the left before telling the boys that there's were on the right, Percy standing behind him paying rapt attention to every word that passed the boyd lips. Up a flight of spiral stairs - they had to be in one of the towers - they found their beds. Four four-poster beds hung with deep red velvet curtains. There trunks at the foot of their allotted bed.

Harry was too tired to talk to the other boys, instead just changing into his pyjamas and crawling into bed where he dreamed of being inside professor Quirrell's turban. He kept giving orders, not that Harry really knew what he was ordering but he hated it when Quirrel questioned him.

* * *

The next morning Harry woke before any of his other dorm mates, not wanting to wake them he got ready for the day and left to head down for breakfast. He couldn't really remember the way back to the great hall, but figured that if he just kept going down he'd get there eventually.

As he walked the many flights of stairs, he began to inspect his surroundings. The castle was old that was for sure, some of the stone bricks showed wear. Harry suspected that it was only because of magic that the castle was in ruins, or at least completely replaced. All the portraits were like the fat lady from the Gryffindor common room, they all moved and spoke, even going into other pictures to converse with others. That was weird.

After walking for who knows how long Harry found that there were no more stairs going down. It was very dark and the air tasted stale making Harry think that maybe he'd gone too far and perhaps he'd ended up in a basement or dungeon.

He came to the assumption that he wasn't going to find his way out by standing around. So Harry began to walk around aimlessly. Turning right, then left and then right again Harry found that he still didn't know where he was.

Suddenly there was a noise from behind him, spinning around he saw it was a hidden doorway opening from the wall, he could hear voices coming through so he jumped into a nearby alcove so he wouldn't noticed.

Out of the doorway walked a small girl, probably a first year Harry thought, with green trim on her school robes, probably Slytherin's. Still someone who knows the way is someone who knows the way even if they are from Slytherin, so Harry discreetly followed behind her at a small distance, letting the noise from her own footsteps guide him when they were out of sight.

Soon after they got to the hall and so did Harry, who then made his way to the Gryffindor table. No one from his dorm were here so he guessed that either they weren't up yet or that they were having the same problem he'd had.

As he ate his breakfast more and more students trickled into the great hall. His dorm mates ran in with about fifteen minutes of breakfast left and just as professor McGonagall was handing out their schedules. Seeing that he had transfiguration first he asked Percy the want-to-be-prefect where the classroom was so he wouldn't get lost again.

As he made his way out of the classroom and towards where he thought the transfiguration classroom was, he noticed that the Slytherin girl he'd followed to the great hall earlier this morning was also going to the classroom, although this time she was joined by a friend. Harry didn't necessarily believe what the twins had said about all Slytherins being evil but he was wary about them despite this: you should never let your guard down. Something Harry had learnt from a young age.

He was the first to reach transfiguration, closely followed by the two girls. He entered the classroom, there were cages of animals dotted around the room ranging from mice to parrots to snakes. Harry guessed they were used by the upper classes, as the textbook the first years had been assigned only talked about transfiguration of inanimate objects.

As he took a seat around the middle of the room he noticed that the only animal not in a cage was a cat sitting on the teacher's desk. It sat perfectly, too still really. Harry had spent a lot of time around the strays around Little Whinging preferring their company to that of his relatives, but he'd never seen a cat sit so stiffly before him. It stuck him as odd but he guessed it was just something different about the magical world.

Just as the lesson was due to start Fred and George ran into the room, they'd obviously had trouble getting here, Harry felt a little bad about not helping them but he pushed it aside: they should have gotten up earlier if he wanted to be on time.

"Thank Merlin! McGonagall isn't here." one of them said more to himself and the possibly George rather than to everyone else, though the look on both their faces showed they was truly relieved, his brothers must have told him stories about her.

No one noticed, their attention focused on the twins, but the cat on the desk seemed to glare at the pair. Harry turned back to the front wondering about when the professor would get here.

Without any pre-warning, the cat, who still hadn't moved, moved. To be more specific, jumped off the desk. Mid way through the jump the cat seemed to shift and morph into a different shape: the shape of professor McGonagall. Harry was amazed, she was like to him

"There you would be wrong Messrs Weasley, now take a seat." McGonagall said. They took the only empty seats, either side of the two girls from Slytherin that'd entered the classroom with Harry. "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

She then proceeded to turn her desk into a pig and then back again. It was very impressive and Harry knew he couldn't wait to get started but quickly remembered that they wouldn't work with animals this year.

The professor then began to lecture on the theory behind transfiguration, Harry made lots of notes though only one thing really stuck: you have to want it happen. They were then given a match and told to turn it into a needle.

Harry looked around the classroom before attempting the spell himself. No one had been able to transfigure their match, in fact no one in the whole class got even a partial transfiguration. Maybe this was harder than Harry had first thought.

"Mr Potter, would you please attempt the transfiguration."Professor McGonagall said from the front of the class, she must have noticed him not doing anything. The downside was that the entire class would now be looking at him while he attempted the transfiguration.

He swept wand across the match visualising it turning into a needle, willing it to change.

"You forgot to say the incantation," Some nameless voice said from the front of the class, causing some of the class to laugh.

"But it worked" The girl who'd sat next to him said. He looked down at where his match had been and indeed there was a needle. The girl, Angelina is what he thought her name was, held up the needle to the class.

Silence was what greeted the class, Harry resisted the urge to smirk at who had made the comment, he was pretty sure it was that Nott girl, Chloë was what Harry thought her name was. Professor McGonagall then walked over and inspected it, finding no fault. She then asked him to turn it back into a match, probably to check it wasn't a fluke.

Harry went through the same process, visualising the needle turn into a match as waved his wand over it. Again it worked, it turned into a match. Again McGonagall inspected it. Again she found no flaw

"Very good, Mr Potter, could you stay behind after class." McGonagall said, before telling the class to get back to work.

For the rest of the class, Harry changed his match into a needle and back again occasionally trying other things, like pencils, when no one was looking. Of course, others asked for help but none of them were very happy with his intent and visualisation method, especially Nott who kept going on about "doing it properly": she refused to listen to anything he'd said on the subject.

Soon the class ended, the rest of the Gryffindors headed to History of Magic, but Harry stayed behind. McGonagall waited for the room to empty before addressing him.

"Mr Potter, I've never seen anyone be able to do what you just did," the professor said. "Not even your father could, and he's been the best student I've ever taught! I couldn't do it when I was your age!" The professor took a moment to collect herself. "What you have is special Harry. Very special. I'd like to offer you private, more advanced classes."

Harry nodded, he didn't know what to say.

"These classes won't be easy, Harry; can I call you Harry?" Harry nodded. "They'll be very hard, with a lot of extra work and don't forget you'll have to keep up with your other classes." McGonagall said, Harry wasn't sure if she was trying to persuade him to do it or not.

"I'd like to do it." Harry said to the professor and saw her smile at him.

"That's brilliant, Harry. Now how about you come here on every monday evening?" Harry agreed to the time and was about to leave when one more question occurred to him.

"Professor, that thing you did at the beginning when the cat turned into you. Have you always been able to do that or did you have to learn how to?"

McGonagall looked at him a bit oddly but answered his question. "I had to learn it, it's very advanced magic so most don't bother, but you're certainly not born with it requires a lot of work. Why do you ask? Do you wish to learn?"

"I would but I'd like to know if it's just limited to changing into other animals?" Harry replied. It had clearly confusing McGonagall so Harry decided to throw caution to the wind and just show her what he meant.

and before the transfiguration, Harry's skin seemed to melt and his body augment taking on a new form until she could have been looking in a mirror.

"Like this Professor" Harry said, only it was with McGonagall's voice, that came out of a mouth that looked identical to that of the owner of that voice and that mouth just happened to be attached to a body that looked identical was it not for the too small robes of an eleven year old boy tightly stretched across it.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

For anyone who saw it, it was an odd, sight.

Professor McGonagall, renowned for being fierce and strict, was walking quickly through the corridors with a very cute cat in her arms. The cat was completely black except for four white socks. It's large green eyes peering out at the students as the odd couple passed.

McGonagall rushed through the halls, kitten in hand, turning corners and climbing stairs. Eventually she stopped outside a gargoyle. "Sherbet Lemon." She announced, seemingly to no one but all of a sudden the gargoyle jumped out the way to reveal a stairway behind it.

McGonagall quickly acceded the stairs stopping in front of a big wooden door.

"Come in Minerva." Came a voice from the other side of the door, as it opened.

Bustling into the headmaster's office, McGonagall said, "Something… unexpected has happened and I don't really know what to do about it."

"And what may this problem be?" Albus Dumbledore said from behind his desk. McGonagall placed the small black cat on the table. "I don't see the problem, pets are lost all the time at Hogwarts, even if this one is the cutest I've seen in many years." The senior professor said, stroking the cat under the chin.

"This isn't someone's lost pet." The transfiguration said tapping the small cat on the head with her wand.

Then instead of a cat sitting on the desk, there was a boy, Harry Potter to be precise. "Hello headmaster."

Dumbledore looked shocked. Looking to McGonagall for an explanation. "I thought that transfiguring him would make it quicker to get Harry your office, really even on the first day of classes people are already fawning over him." Though she said the last bit mainly to herself, the headmaster nodded as if he understood what appeared to Harry as rather backwards thinking, why would people be fawning over him.

"May I ask why you saw the need to bring young Harry into my office, Minerva?" Dumbledore asked.

"Harry's a metamorphmagus." She said, a term that flew straight over the boy's head. What was a metamorphmagus? Harry thought to himself. Dumbledore looked like he was about to comment but professor McGonagall interrupted him. "But he's not like any Metamorphmagi on record. His control and precision are already unmatched by any I've heard of, even now Nymphadora is cannot compare him!"

"What makes you say this?" The Headmaster managed to squeeze in in the middle of McGonagall's rant.

"He copied me, Albus. He copied me identically! He even did my voice!" She said, her voice getting higher as if the mere thought of it all was outrageous.

Dumbledore nodded, much to the exasperation of his deputy who seemed to think Harry's talent deserved much more commemoration than just a nod. "Can you show me, Harry?" He asked the young boy.

"I'll try, sir." Harry said, his voice shaking slightly. He was suddenly not sure he could do it. What if he couldn't do it and they sent him back to the Dursley's. What if McGonagall put him in detention if he couldn't do it.

Screwing up his face he remembered his previous change. All the details, major and minor. The build, the height, her features on her face, the small wrinkles on her hands. Harry took everything he could see from around the teacher's conservative robe that she was wearing guess at what was underneath but knowing that if it looked about right from the outside he no one would know. Finally he worked on the voice. This was always the trickiest part: you couldn't see someone's voice box. This lead to it being down to a lot of trial and error as Harry manipulated the vocal chords until it was as close to the person's voice as possible

Opening his eyes he saw there reactions. Dumbledore's jaw was almost against his desk, leaving his mouth agape. McGonagall was beaming with pride, she' been proven correct and why shouldn't she take pride in the achievements of her house.

"Did I do it right, professor?" He asked with his transfiguration teacher's voice coming out of his throat, instantly knowing he had done it right.

"Oh, Harry you've done it perfectly." His aesthetically identical teacher replied. Looking back at Dumbledore his jaw was somehow even closer to his desk.

After gathering his senses and brain functions again, he asked "How long have you been able to do this, Harry?"

The young boy thought for a second and then said, "I've always been able to do it." Harry paused thinking. "Or at least I've always remembered being able to do it."

"Where you always able to go into minute detail when changing your look?" The bearded professor asked.

"Ummm, no I haven't always been able to change the shape of my body." Harry thought, looking like his brain was far away in his memories. "And the voice changing, that took a lot of work and practice but I think I could always change it I just wasn't very good."

"WHat do you mean by 'shape'?"

"Umm, like how tall I was or how big my muscles were. Stuff like that."

"How old were you when you could change your height and build, Harry?"

"Seven years old, sir."

Dumbledore was intrigued, the Potters had always had an affinity with transfiguration, particularly with becoming animagi, James being a stag and his father, Charles getting a masters in the subject as well as being a falcon animagi. But he'd never heard of a Potter with the ability to be metamorphmagus. That was a Black family trate. Though, Dumbledore thought to himself Harry's paternal grandmother was Doria Black so he could have inherited this gift through her. And like in Nymphadora's case, it might just have needed an extra boost from a first generation witch to bring the gift back?

"I think this might be why Harry was so good in my transfiguration class this morning," professor McGonagall said snapping Dumbledore from his thoughts. "If his magical core has been powerful enough to be able to transfigure his whole body since the age of seven then he probably won't even struggle with OWL level, maybe even NEWT level, material."

Dumbledore nodded, he'd been thinking the same thing, Harry was going to be a very powerful wizard.

"Did you ever do any other kinds of accidental magic, Harry." He asked, wondering what kind of mayhem a wizard as powerful as Harry would cause.

"Well, there was that time when all of my hair grew back in one night." Not particularly interesting or helpful but Dumbledore filed it away to one side. "Then there was that time when I suddenly appeared on the school roof when I was being chased by bullies." Very interesting, not many people are powerful enough apperated when so young, Dumbledore thought. "Then I've also talked to snakes." Now this was interesting. Just like Tom Dumbledore thought, thinking how this development could tie in with his theories about what happened that night on halloween. Harry must have seen the shocked face of professor McGonagall because he then said: "Is that bad? I'm sorry I didn't know that was a bad thing, I promise I'll never do it again"

Seeing the boy panic, Dumbledore began to attempt to calm the boy all while attempting to shoot McGonagall a look so she'd composed herself in front of the child. "You don't need to promise that, Harry. Being able to talk to snakes is, while it's a rare ability, it is not unheard of. The language you speak, Harry, the language of snakes, is called Parseltongue. Now being able to speak this is a genetic trait and people who can speak it are called Parselmouths." Dumbledore explained, hoping his explanations would calm the young boy.

"B-But you shouldn't worry about it, Harry, it's perfectly normal." McGonagall said not quite hiding the shock she felt from this sudden revelation.

For what all this was worth, Harry seemed to have calmed down and accepted that being a Parselmouth wasn't all bad; even if he didn't seem to buy McGonagall's cover up.

"Anyway, Harry, your ability to change your appearance means you're a metamorphmagus." Dumbledore said. Harry nodded head, the term had come up earlier in conversation and had previously gone straight over his head.. "Now metamorphmagi are quite rare, in fact I only know of one other metamorphmagus alive today and just as it turns out she's at this school. If you would like I could organise some... lessons, of a certain kind, for her to give you."

Harry thought about it for a moment before saying, "I'd like that sir, thank you."

"It will be no trouble, Harry." Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling. "And now I believe you should at least attempt to get back to your lesson before they finish. Minerva if you'll show Harry out please." he then said, dismissing both of them.

* * *

Harry made it back for the last half hour of history of magic, it was taught by a ghost and that's where the excitement ends. With in minutes, Harry could feel his eyes drooping, his classmates who'd been there from the beginning of the class were already asleep. Except for Zabini, she was still wide awake. Though it was probably just so she could be the best in the class.

Thankfully, the class was soon finished and the class went to lunch. Harry was putting together a sandwich, sitting by himself at the end of the table closest to the door, when the Weasley twins.

"How you doin', Harrykins?" One of them, possibly George, said. Harrykins, was the nickname the twins had dubbed him on the express ride on their way to the magical castle turned school.

Not giving him a chance to answer, the other twin, Fred(?), said, "You know we've been wondering." He sounded serious, and after looking at Fred's face Harry saw he was serious. Or as serious as the twins got, Harry judged by the day Harry had known the two of them. "How did you get McGonagall to get you out of history?"

Harry thought this must have been a joke. After everything he'd seen the twins, he'd never seen them serious.

"Damn it Harry! Don't just sit there looking all clueless: getting out of classes is a very serious matter! If you have a way to get out of classes we need to know." George(?) said.

That's what this is all about Harry thought really!? But I suppose the tables could turn.

"Follow me." Harry instructed the twins, getting up from his seat, leaving his sandwich alone on the table. Walking out of the Great Hall and taking an immediate left into the corridor he'd followed the Slytherin girl from that very morning before entering the first empty classroom he found.

Knowing he'd only have a second after their line of sight was broken, Harry quickly went about the change.

The Weasley twins walked into the room, Fred first only to be followed by George close behind, only to find empty. "How's he given us the slip, George. He only just got in here! Do you reckon there's a secret passage way in here or something?" Fred said to his brother as he turned to face him.

What he saw astounded him.

There were two Georges!

That would mean there were three members of Fred and George.

"W-wh-what's happening!?" George said, voice shaking. "We walked in here and then there were two Freds!"

"Two Freds, there's two Georges, I'm the only Fred!" Fred replied, mind equally as boggled as his twin's.

"No, I'm the real Fred!" Harry interjected as he was internally wetting himself with laughter. He hadn't really thought he get away with. Not only were his robes to small for the much larger build of the twins, even though the Weasleys notoriously had secondhand robes Harry's robes were taking even that to the extreme and his voice was slightly too high and a little too bright to be identical to that of the twins, but both either weren't noticed or just discarded in the heat of the moment "You're an imposter!" he said accusingly, pointing at the real Fred.

"Yeah, you must be." The real George said, only adding to Harry's internal laughter. "Cause if I'm the real George-"

"And I'm the real Fred." Harry said, chipping in where he thought the twins would, trying to give a convincing performance.

"Then you can't be one of us." The real George continued turning on the real Fred drawing his wand from the inside of his robes as he did.

It had gone on too long. And finally, Harry couldn't take it any longer. Doubling over, Harry continued to let out bark after bark of pure euphoric laughter before falling on the stone floor and only laughing more because of it.

"Fred!?" George cried out, clearly confused " Why are you laughing? Why's so funny?" He looked over to 'imposter Fred' to see if he'd got some joke that had gone over his own head. Though seeing the 'imposter's' equally befuddled expression it was clear that he didn't.

"I can't… believe… y-you fell for… for that!" Fred, the actual imposter who was really just Harry, said between gasps for air and bursts of laughter.

The twins, the real twins, just stood there; George open mouthed; Fred stuttering and spluttering, neither understanding what had just happened.

Taking pity on the twins, Harry changed back, the twins just standing there with identical expressions of slack mouthed confusion.

"Heyyyy." Harry said awkwardly with a small wave. "It's me Harry, we met on the train." He said laying on a condescending tone just to add insult to injury.

"How did you do that?" One of the twins, George(?), asked.

"I'm a metamorphmagus." Harry said, the twins were clearly not satisfied with this explanation so Harry was forced into going into more detail about his ability. "It means that I can change my appearance. My height, my weight, hair colour, eye colour: anything I want to change, I can change." He summarized up, feeling very proud of his achievement to condense the long talk he'd had with Dumbledore about it in to about two sentences.

"So you can look like anyone you want?" Fred(?) asked.

Harry nodded.

George followed up with another question, "Even the staff? Even Dumbledore?"

Harry nodded.

"Brother of mine, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" The twin who Harry though was Fred said.

"Oh brother, I believe I do!" The twin who was possibly George replied. "That is if you're thinking about the marvellous pranking opportunities ickle Harrykins has presented us with."

"Indeed I was, my slightly less handsome twin, indeed I was. He does seem to have a knack for it. Just look at this stunt he's pulled, on us no doubt." Twin A, Harry had given on trying to put names to indistinguishable faces.

"So Harrykins are you in?" Twin B said.

"Are you with us?" Twin A added.

Harry, who'd been watching the exchange like a verbal tennis match, could only grin at there ridiculous mannerisms and quirks, all the time thinking about how much… mischief he'd get up to if he joined in with their... fun.

"Alright, I'd like that." He said trying to keep it cool and keep a straight face on the outside while inside he was going ballistic. He was so excited he'd never had friends before, Dudley and Dursley couple had made sure of that. But not even the thought of his hated relatives could dampen Harry's mood now: He had friends!

* * *

Going round the magic school with the Weasley twins certainly put a different spin on your perspective of things. Ordinary things like corridors, doorways and suits of armour became opportunities for pranks and general mischief.

Under the tutelage of Fred and George, Harry quickly picked the tricks of the trade. Of course he wasn't quite at their level of mischievousness, as they often reminded him, he made sure to try and catch up with the two of them.

The twins themselves were very.. interesting characters. They both presented this identical front of ridiculousness and stupidity but it was clear to anyone who'd spent enough time and the two of them that there are subtle differences. Fred was more of an ideas guy who was good at charms and could remember random facts for Binn's History lessons. George was the half that carried out the ideas; excelling at both transfiguration and potions. Fred was also the de facto leader of the pair, though Harry didn't know why, he assumed that it was Fred was older, or at least claimed to be, Harry wasn't sure about that either.

He also learnt a lot about the Weasley family. He now knew that Fred and George were two of six boys, were the fourth and fifth oldest and had one sister, three years younger than them, you wasn't to be messed with. They wouldn't tell Harry why only not to do so.

They told him about Bill, their oldest brother who'd graduated from Hogwarts the june previous and was now an apprentice at Gringotts, the wizard bank. How he was a ladies man and could have played chaser for the English quidditch team.

Charlie was the second oldest brother and was currently in his sixth year at Hogwarts. He currently played seeker on the Gryffindor quidditch team and also could play for England. Harry also learnt that the English Quidditch team was a laughing stock. Charlie was apparently mad about animals, particularly large and dangerous ones. The twins also told him that he had a desire to work with dragons but that their mum wouldn't let him.

Percy was the next oldest brother. The twins clearly liked him the least out of their siblings and never really tried to hide it. Percy was the anti-twins. He always stuck to the rules and he never made jokes. And he wanted to work for the Ministry of Magic, which according to the twins was even worse.

Ron was their youngest brother, they summed him up in three words: stubborn, loyal and slow. Apparently Ron was not the brightest spark to come out of the Weasley family.

All they said about Ginny was that she was more dangerous than the dragons Charlie wanted to dance with.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Harry and the twins were almost late to potions after their quick talk, planning session, whatever. The only reason they got to class on time was because they took a gamble with one of the school's many secret passageways in the hope that it would get them to where they wanted to go.

Despite him being on time to the lesson, the potions professor still glared at him. Harry didn't know his name or if he had a reputation for it but it looked like he could be dangerous to be on the wrong side of.

His greasy black hair framing his pale face that seemed to glow in the low light. His cloak flapped about behind him dramatically at the slightest movement; Harry had to smother a small laugh when it almost caught Zabini in the face.

He began to take the register, Harry didn't know if this was the norm, McGonagall hadn't done it and he'd missed History. The others just answered with a "Yes, professor." or a "Here, sir." so he was going to do the same.

When the professor should have said Harry's name, he paused. "Ah yes," he said in a near inaudible voice. "Harry Potter. Our new - celebrity."

Warrington and Montague began to snigger behind their hands.

Once the professor finished calling out names and look up at the class. His face held no emotion, his eyes, black like Hagrid's, gave nothing away away, they we cold, dark and empty.

"You are here to learn the subtle science that is potion making. I do not expect any of you to understand the beauty of a simmering potion, the complexity behind the simplest of brews, the power of delicate liquids creeping through your veins as they bewitch the senses and mind." He spoke in a near whisper but he captured the classes attention, no one spoke. "There will be no foolish wand waving in my class and many of you will hardly believe it's magic. However, I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you're not as bigger bunch of dunderheads that I usually have to teach"

His little speech was followed by silence. Harry raised an eyebrow, it all seemed a bit too dramatic, wasn't it just like cooking? He looked to the twins, they were sitting on either side of him, they didn't look overly impressed either. Zabini was on the edge of her seat, as if she was trying to prove she wasn't a dunderhead. Pathetic Harry thought, does she think she has to be the best at everything? But of course she's got to 'do it properly' Harry thought with a mental chuckle remembering that morning's transfiguration.

"Potter!" The teacher said suddenly, snapping Harry from his thoughts. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

What? Harry thought, root of asphodel and an infusion of worm something. Fred had turned around slightly, giving Harry a look of sympathy. Harry was stumped he had no idea, though Zabini did: she already had her hand up.

"I don't know, sir."

The professor's lips curled into a sneer, an expression that looked all too familiar on his face.

"Tut, tut - fame clearly isn't anything." He'd ignored Zabini's hand, not that Harry blamed him. "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Again Zabini's hand was high in the air, and again Snape ignored her. Harry didn't know, so he thought he'd take a punt at something that might win him respect with his classmates.

"In your supply cupboard, sir?" He said. The professor looked stunned, Harry guessed no body normally spoke back to him like that. The class looked stunned as well, some Gryffindors were giggling the twins, Lee were as well as a couple of Slytherins, Harry noticed. Some of the Slytherins looked like they wanted to laugh but weren't, probably because it was below them or something, Harry had heard George saying that they thought they were above everyone else. Most of the Slytherins, however, look downright murderous.

Turning back to the teacher, Harry saw that the sneer was back on his face. "That will be detention with me this evening at seven, don't be late Potter." He sneered.

The lesson then began properly, the teacher, who Harry had now found out was called Snape, didn't really teach them anything; just telling them to follow a recipe and then leave.

Harry didn't do as well as he did in transfiguration, in fact he did terribly. Though he personally thought that he'd do better if Snape hadn't of been breathing down the back of his neck the whole time. He'd ended up with a potion that looked similar to mud with a consistency to match, definitely not the 'glimmering lilac' he was supposed to have.

After the lesson, Harry returned to the common room and attempted to do the essay that Snape had set, explaining the proper way to brew the potion they'd attempted in the lesson and the consequences if made incorrectly. But that was only after he'd helped the twins set up and execute a prank involving the slytherin table's soup and fireworks.

* * *

Harry quickly settled into a routine at Hogwarts. He got up early, he was always up before the rest of his dorm mates, he planned and carried out pranks with the twins, he went to all his classes and did the work in class and out of it, though he had varied success. He was top of the class in transfiguration, charms and defence against the dark arts, and by someway at that. However, in his other subjects he wasn't as good. In history he'd normally just fall asleep, professor Binns just had that kind of effect on him. A couple of words from the ghost professor's mouth and Harry's head was against the desk.

He'd had a similar reaction to astronomy. He couldn't concentrate on the stars, moons and planets that were all so far away that he'd never get there. Though professor Sinistra made sure he couldn't fall asleep, she was much more alert than the old ghost.

In herbology Harry found that all magical plants had a personal vendetta against him. Or at least that's what it looked like. In their first lesson, Harry was attacked by, though professor Sprout said he'd stumbled into, the venomous tentacular. This ended up with Harry being in hospital wing, only being released in time for his next herbology lesson.

Potions was Harry's worst lesson. Though he'd swear up and down it was because of the bat like creature known as Severus Snape breathing down his neck the whole time. He hadn't gotten a single potion right yet, so Harry was starting to think that maybe it was simply because he couldn't.

Charms had come to him as easily as transfiguration had. In their first lesson professor Flitwick had lectured on the theory behind the levitation charm. Quickly bored by the small man's ramblings Harry began experimenting with his text book. Using the 'swish and flick' wand movement described he began to levitate the book. He didn't make it go very high to avoid being noticed, but he'd soon got the hang of it. He then started heavier objects: his bigger transfiguration textbook; his entire book bag; Zabini's entire book bag, which seemed to have double the number of books than anyone else.

Still he got bored of these and wanted to try something else. He looked towards the front and saw George scribbling fiercely on his parchment. Hmm, I wonder Harry thought to himself. He cast the spell on George, at first not moving him at all, then slowly lifting him from his seat. Harry felt a slight pull on his magic due to the extra weight but he thought he could handle it. He'd not appeared to have noticed so Harry began to elevate the rarely studious boy; honestly it was weird enough to see George taking notes in a lesson at all. He still hadn't noticed, when he was almost a foot up from her seat, though the he was reaching further down to the table to continue his note taking.

It was Alicia, who had been sitting next to the ginger haired boy, who realised that George was no longer on her seat first. Of course she announced this to the class with a scream.

"George's being possessed!" She screamed, she was quickly joined by the more superstitious of their classmates.

The screaming had startled Harry, breaking his focus on the spell and causing George to free fall slightly before he regained his concentration to stop her from hitting the bench. He quickly lowered her onto the bench himself to stop there being any hard impact before shouting out over the noise.

"Sorry professor, I was just practicing. I didn't mean for it to get out of hand."

Needless to say Flitwick didn't believe him, at least until he'd seen a couple of demonstrations where Fred, Alicia and Angelina were lifted from their seats on separate occasions.

Needless to say he was good at charms.

Defence was, all things considered, a waste of a lesson. Professor Quirrell lectured from the from, stuttering his way through the syllabus not really giving any extra insight or knowledge about the topic, even in professor Binns could tell you something different, though a first hand account is always interesting.

Harry was sure he could learn everything Quirrell was going to teach them in the space of an hour if he put his mind to it, but then every defence lesson for the rest of the year would be really boring so he didn't.

Instead Harry went to the library and found a couple of books on offensive and defensive magic and he learnt what wasn't on the course. He would practice them in a disused classroom on the fifth floor, perfecting each spell while working on his accuracy.

Still, this wasn't really the practice Harry thought he might need. If he was attacked it his attacker was unlikely to stand still and let Harry fire spells at him/her from a distance. Lucky for Harry, Warrington was always quick to draw his wand in an argument so Harry got lots of practice.

The first time Warrington had attacked Harry he'd done so alone, his arrogance and belief in blood supremacy making him think he could defeat the half-blooded Harry Potter. He was sorely mistaken. He'd managed to get one low powered stunner away before Harry hit him with a full-body bind curse leaving him in the hallways at the mercy of the caretaker, Argus Filch.

The next time the thick headed Slytherin attacked he brought back up in the form of Montague and Pucey. This didn't really make a difference to how the Slytherins faired. Montague and Pucey only served as cannon fodder, meaning that Warrington lasted a little longer but ultimately suffered the same fate.

Now when Warrington wanted to attack Harry, he tried to take the Gryffindor by surprise and he always made sure to bring along his friends. Not that it made much difference. They were always very loud so Harry always knew they were coming, he didn't even need his more acute animalistic senses to hear them. They weren't very skilled, only knowing the stinging hex, the only spell Quirrell had taught them. They weren't very powerful, on the odd time that Harry took a hit it felt more like a light tickling sensation than the sharp sting he was supposed to feel.

The twins always wanted to help him out but Harry told them not to get in the way. Despite their creativity they weren't any better at magic than his slytherin opponents. Meaning that they were only more likely to get hurt in the crossfire between Harry's superior skill and Warrington's superior numbers.

* * *

It was now approaching Halloween. Harry was bored, he was either too far ahead in a class or just not interested. Honestly why Harry even bothered turning up to most of his lessons was beyond him, though the other Gryffindors wouldn't like the amount of points I'd lose, he thought, except for Fred George he mentally added with a chuckle.

Harry and the twins spent a lot of their free time exploring the castle. Learning the secret passageways and the quickest ways to get around. They even went out at night though he'd never been caught, if Filch or Mrs Norris ever came close all they'd run and hope that Filch didn't follow.

On top of all this he had his extra monday evening metamorphmagus lessons with Nymphadora Tonks, or just Tonks for those who wanted to survive the encounter with the older girl. They'd always follow a similar pattern:Tonks would name a body part; Harry would morph said body part. Tonks said this would help with his control and that if he was familiar enough with the feeling of the morph he should be able to tell when it happens accidentally.

Tonks then normally went on about how embarrassing it was when she accidentally morphed when she was excited or sad, normally with a funny story to go with it.

Tonks was funny, not like Fred and George funny but like she didn't mean for anything to happen but it did and she went along with it. She was the easiest person Harry had found to talk to not just in the wizarding world but in his whole life. And while she'd let him fight his own battles, she made sure to keep some of the older kids who wanted a go at him away. She kept saying it was good practice for when she became an auror and that she didn't mind doing it. If Harry had to take a wild stab in the dark he'd say it was like having an older sister.

* * *

Halloween had never been the best time of the year for Harry. Before, at the Dursleys, he'd be left behind in his cupboard while Dudley and all the other boys his age would go out and get sweets.

But now he was at Hogwarts, and he knew the true reason for his parents deaths. It had a heavier meaning. It was the night his parents died. The night that Voldemort had attacked his family and killed all of them except for him.

The thought of that monster coming into his house and attacking his family made Harry's blood boil. He wanted to level the score, to attack and kill Voldemort and everyone he loved in the same way the psychopath had done to him.

However, Voldemort was gone, or dead depending on who you listened to, so it didn't look like Harry was going to get his wish anytime soon.

Fred and George soon noticed his unhappiness and then went out of their way to rectify it. Dung bomb attacks had been targeted at all students throughout the day, the badge on your uniform not protecting anyone from the twins attempt to cheer Harry up. And while Harry did find the discomfort and the inability of the majority of the school to find out the perpetrators somewhat amusing it couldn't get him out of his funk.

He went to the feast grudgingly. He didn't really want to celebrate the anniversary of his parents death but he'd been pulled along by the twins. The food, as always, was good, great even. The twins and Harry talked about the upcoming quidditch match, strategies and plays they'd had come up with, Gryffindor's chances and how the training sessions Wood ran went. All the Weasleys, apparently, were quite the quidditch enthusiasts.

Harry was halfway through his second helping of treacle tart, he'd always had a sweet tooth, when the stuttering professor Quirrell ran into the great hall.

"Troll!" He cried between heaving breaths. "Troll in the dungeon! Thought you'd like to know." He muttered as he passed out, falling on to the floor.

The hall erupted into panic. Students screaming. Teachers trying to retain order. Percy Weasley's over inflated sense of importance.

Dumbledore's voice rang out. "Silence!" His voice must have been magically amplified Harry thought, no one else could be heard over the noise. "Each house will return to their common room." He announced once the the quiet had settled. "And stay there until this issue is settled. Prefects, guide your house mates back to your dorms, if you see any trouble do not approach it, back away and inform a member of staff."

Everyone started to walk out of the hall in a semi-orderly manner. The Gryffindors all following some nameless seventh year prefect, the first years all crowded together at the back. Harry looked around wondering if the troll was still in the dungeon. His gaze passed over his yearmates: Fred, George, Lee, Alicia… but no Angelina. Where was she? Harry thought.

Stepping forward, Harry pulled Alicia towards him before quietly whispering, "Where's Angelina? Why isn't she here?"

The girl seemed to freeze. "She was in the bathroom, she won't know about the troll!"

Harry nodded, brain werring trying to figure out what would be best to do: tell a prefect, go and find a teacher… no both of those options might take too long if the troll had made it out of the dungeon.

He decided to go himself, confident in his ability to get to the bathroom and back to the common room before anyone noticed he'd even gone.

He ducked into a secret passageway as they passed it, noting that Alicia was following him, though no one else seemed to notice their absence. They quickly made their way to the bathroom where Angelina was, Harry utilising his intimate knowledge of the secret passageways to get them there as fast as possible.

They'd finally got to the bathroom.

Despite how quickly Harry and Alicia had managed to traverse the school the troll had been able to get there, standing at ten feet tall and easily five foot wide at the middle with a big wooden club in one hand.

And then there was Angelina. Standing at just under five foot tall, and easily thin enough for that troll to snap her in half. Her back against the opposite wall, mouth agape in fear. She hadn't noticed Harry coming in, her eyes hadn't left the troll.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

All of a sudden, the troll launched into action.

It's club sweeping round in a swift and deadly horizontal swing, destroying most of wooden toilet cubicles to the right hand side of the room. The wood splintered almost instantaneously, offering little or no resistant to the wild beasts giant club. The swing followed through heading for Angelina's head.

The girl's eyes snapped away from the animal's head only to follow its club on its journey towards her face. The splintering pieces of the toilet cubicles flying around her, cutting into her exposed forearms, shins and face. Not that she seemed to take any notice.

Harry knew he had to do something. He couldn't just let the troll cave in the darker girl's face, even if he didn't really know her very well.

Angelina had thrown herself to the floor to avoid the troll's club, letting it smash into the opposite wall to that of the toilets it had destroyed earlier. The hunk of wood shattering the mirrors that were positioned above the sinks before carving out a hole in the wall behind them. It's bad luck to break a mirror, I wonder if that'll help us? Harry thought to himself before bringing himself back to the present: Angelina's life was at stake!

The troll was going for another attempt to smash Angelina's head open. This time it came in the form of a vicious over head downwards swing aimed at said girl's face. Harry knew he couldn't let it connect: he had to do something.

The only question was what.

Harry's mind wasn't working properly. Useless spells he's learnt in lessons, from random books he'd picked up in the library and prank spells Fred and George had taught him flicked through his brain. Transfigure a beetle into a button, a tickling hex, a dusting spell. None of these would stop the troll and save Angelina. He thought back to other spells he's learnt.

Then he found a solution, or a least he thought he had one. The levitation charm might just work.

The club was descending quickly Harry didn't have much time. Harry drew his wand. Thinking what he wanted to happen in his mind, he willed, he wished for, the club to stop moving.

And stop moving it did.

The club was levitating about a meter above the floor Angelina was lying on. The troll's hand slipped from around the club when it met the sudden, unexpected, resistance. It's momentum carrying it into the ground.

So he'd stopped the club from splattering Angelina's brain around the bathroom, but Harry's problems weren't over: the troll was still there.

Thankfully trolls were slow at the best of times and were particularly slow on the uptake when it came to their clubs being ripped from their hands. Had it not been for that Harry was sure his moment of indecision would have costed him a classmate.

Harry willed the club to spin around and with a flick of his wand it did causing it to impact the trolls ribcage with a force far stronger than what Harry could have done if he'd held the club in his hands, minus his magic.

The troll stumbled away from the still prone girl, letting Alicia rush over to her, though clearly wasn't out of the fight yet. Harry wanted to hurt the troll, it had endangered Angelina, and while Harry didn't know her that well he certainly didn't want his house mate getting turned into troll food. Focusing on his desire to hurt the beast and whipping his wand around again, as if Harry was holding the club himself, he launched another attack against the beast. The club seemed to turn into a silvery metal mid swing before a loud snap echoed around the bathroom when the club impacted against the trolls ribs sending in stumbling further back.

Another wave of his wand and the troll was faced with another attack. This time going for it's head. The beast managed to get it's arm in the way but all that did was snap it's arm and make the club glance off it's skull as opposed to crushing the animal's head.

The troll fell to the floor. Dust from the ancient castle clouding around it. Hoping it wouldn't be about to get back up again, Harry stopped the levitation charm he had on the club sending it towards the floor.

But his fear had apparently been realised.

The troll was still moving: Harry panicked.

He looked around the room. Angelina was still hobbling out the room, leaning heavily on Alicia for support. If the troll did manage to get up they'd be caught right in the immediate 'whatever is here is going to be made clobbered into a pancake" range of the trol

Slashing his wand horizontally with a scream, "AHHHHHHHH!" Harry willed the troll to move away from his house mates so that they were out of harm's way. And his magic delivered.

The troll flew through the air, as if it had been launched from a catapult, and hit the opposite wall before falling back to the floor.

The troll wasn't moving, at least for now. Harry slowly made his way into the bathroom. Swishing and flicking his wand, he started to lift the trolls club into the air just in case the troll needed another reminder to stay down into it's tiny, stupid, stubborn brain.

"Harry?" Alicia said from behind him as the dust settled around them, her voice shaking slightly. "Is it d-dead?"

"I don't think so." Harry replied using the club to poke the monstrous troll.

"Then why isn't it moving?"

"It could be just knocked out." Angelina suggested, still leaning on her friend and dorm mate.

"I think Angelina's right." Harry said, using his magic to throw the trolls club across the bathroom before putting his wand away inside his robes as he turned to face the two girls. "And that we should go before it wakes up. I don't really want to fight for our lives twice in one evening." Chuckling as much at his own poor attempt at humour as he was a the serealism that he'd just seen and fought a troll, a creature of fantasy more than anything that existed in his 'normal' life at the Dursley's family home.

"Plus we should get away before the teachers find out we didn't do as they told us to." Alicia said.

"I'm afraid it's too late for that, Miss Spinnet."

Professor McGonagall was in the doorway.

Professor McGonagall was in the doorway looking annoyed.

Like really really annoyed.

Professor McGonagall was in the doorway looking annoyed and Harry knew it was because of them.

Before Professor McGonagall could start her triad on everything they'd done wrong, there was a groan from behind them. Harry spun around to see the troll lifting itself off of the ground, it's club back in hand as it started to lumber towards them.

Harry quickly grabbed a hold of his wand and swiped it across his body focusing on how he'd felt just minutes earlier. His need, his want to get the troll, this monster away from his friends and now his mentor; away from those he cares for, from those who cared for him.

Just as before the troll sailed through the air towards the wall it had already met: intimately. But unlike the previous time the wall didn't stop it.

The wall gave way and the troll flew through even more air, falling two stories from the now demolished second floor girls bathroom.

And then there was the sound of stone impacting stone, a scream and black.

* * *

Harry woke up in a bed.

It was a clean bed and everything was very white, though everything kind of blurred together without his glasses. Harry felt slightly exposed without the familiar weight on his nose.

He tried to flail his arms around in the hope of finding a table besides the bed he found himself upon and further finding his glasses to try and workout where he was.

But he couldn't. When Harry tried to move his arms even just the smallest amount it felt like all the pain receptors in his arm lit up like red lights in brothels. So no moving his arms, and by extension no seeing anything beyond blurry shapes.

And to make things worse: he had a headache.

So Harry tried to focus on what he could do: touch, hear and smell.

The bed Harry was occupying was very comfortable. Or at least Harry guessed it was a bed, he wasn't sure but he was fairly certain it wasn't a sofa. Most sofas slant to one side and weren't this comfortable. The bed, yes it definitely was a bed he wouldn't be able to lie down on anything else, was almost too comfortable. As if it was trying to distract Harry from something else he should be focusing.

The room smelled… clean. Of almost nothing. It was weird very weird, distractingly so. It was as if I couldn't focus on anything else. Harry had never thought that he would miss the musty smell of the dungeons, the overbearing smell of owl droppings in the owlery or the competing fragrances of the green houses.

Of course there was also no sounds to be heard which just annoyed Harry further.

"Mr Potter, I see you're awake." A voice said. Harry turned his head and could see a blurred figure of a woman if he had to guess at who it was. "Now if you'll stay still, I'd like to just perform a check up to see if your body is healing properly."

A lot of fancy swishing wand movements and a couple of muttered words caused a red tinted hologram version of Harry's body to emerge from Harry's actual body. There were orange sections around his upper arms, left leg and head.

"Well it looks like you're healing well, Mr Potter." The woman said.

"Where am I?" Harry asked.

"You're in the hospital wing, Mr Potter. Again I might add, do you not remember your run in with a venomous tentacular?"

Somewhere in the back of his mind Harry recognized that the venomous tentacular incident had happened, but he was having a lot of trouble remembering anything clearly. The more he tried to remember the worse his headache got.

"Why am I here?" Harry asked next.

"Can you not remember?"

"It makes my head hurt more."

"Well, Mr Potter, you had an… excursion with a mountain troll that ended with you taking a large bump to your head, arms and legs." The lady said.

"And who are you?" Harry asked yet another question.

"Me? I am Madam Pomfrey, resident healer of Hogwarts, Mr Potter." She said, she sounded proud of her position, like she'd worked hard to earn it. "I will be leaving you now Mr Potter. Try and get some rest, the potions I have prescribed you are working as they should but any physical exertion will slow the healing process so you're to stay in your bed. Your memory should come to you over time but if it doesn't you'll need to tell me so I can get a specialist to examine you from St. Mungo's. Good day."

And with that Madam Pomfrey left. Or at least Madam Pomfrey left Harry's somewhat blurry peripheral vision and he couldn't find the effort within himself to follow her progress out of the room. _'So I've been in a fight with a troll'_ Harry thought as he assessed what he'd been told about his injuries. _'My arms, legs and my head: no worse than Dudley.'_ Harry thought before a more important thought crossed his mind.

 _'Did I win?'_

The mere idea seemed ridiculous to Harry. He'd always imagined trolls to be massive and Harry was small, very small. How could he have possibly won against a troll many times his size.

 _'Magic!'_

So maybe his memories were starting to come back to him, or maybe he was as stupid as Professor Snape told him he was. Who knew.

* * *

Harry's memories did come back over time, he remembered his classes the spells he'd learnt, the lectures he'd ignored. He remembered the friends he'd made, Fred and George, his prankster twin best friends, Angelina and Alicia the girls from gryffindor whom he'd saved from the troll. He remembered everything, even his last visit here when he's attracted by a venomous tentacular.

But he still couldn't put his glasses on.

He was healing as expected according to Madam Pomfrey but he still couldn't move his arms to reach the broken glasses he'd had for as long as he could remember.

"Madam Pomfrey!" He called out into the soul sucking abyss that is the hospital wing. "Madam Pomfreeeeeeeey!" She hadn't come to check on him in what felt like days and he had almost convinced himself that his arms didn't hurt anymore.

"What Mister Potter is so important that must create this racket?" The mad matron of Hogwarts said. She looked mad, _maybe this wasn't such a great idea_ , Harry thought.

"I think I'm better." Harry said.

"Really?" Pomfrey asked. She had one hand on her hip and the other was holding her wand. _Yep definitely a bad idea._

"Yes." His voice barely more than a high pitched whisper.

"You've already recovered from the cracked bones in your arms my diagnosis said you have not fifthteen minutes ago?"

Harry only managed a nod this time not being able to force his voice into articulating an answer.

"While you were able to recover from your head injuries over night the Skele-grow I gave you won't have been able to work in this time." Madam Pomfrey said.

"But I've been here for days." Harry moaned his voice found again with his disappointment.

"Mister Potter since you caused a ceiling to collapse on top of you you've been here a total of sixteen hours I'm sure you'll cope with staying another day before returning to regular classes."

"But I'm bored, there's nothing to do here."

Madam Pomfrey didn't look impressed. "Well maybe, Mister Potter, you should think about that before you collapse a girls bathroom on top of your head."

"I didn't know that would happen, it was an accident."

"Well maybe you think about the consequences of what happens when you banish a mountain troll into a wall before the next time. Good day Mister Potter."

And with that she turned and left.

* * *

It was just after four o'clock, during which Madam Pomfrey had visited Harry's bed seven more times and only was it instigated by the healer, when Fred, George, Angelina and Alicia came to visit.

" I still can't believe you did it." Fred said, shaking his head. "A fully grown mountain troll, it's ridiculous I can't believe you did it."

"Well I had to do something, Angelina could've died." Harry said, chuckling along with the others at Fred's reaction.

"And we'll be forever thankful that you did so, Harry, but that doesn't change the fact that most adult witches or wizards couldn't of done what you just did." Alicia said looking and sounding dreadfully serious for a person standing next to not just one but both of the Weasley twins.

"Yeah Harry, if you ever need something just ask and I'll do it." Angelina said. "You saved my life and there's nothing I won't do to repay that."

"You don't have to do anythi-"

"But I want to, Harry. You may not think you deserve a reward but I do. Okay?" Angelina ranted getting her message across loud and clear.

"Okay, how about you just be a friend is that okay?" Harry asked looking unsure about whether he'd said the right thing.

Angelina smiled and shook her head, "For now, Harry, for now. Friends?" She asked sticking out her hand for him to shake.

"If I could move my arms I'd shake it but I STILL CAN'T." He shouted the last bit in the direction of Madam Pomfrey's office.

"Why are you mad at Madam Pomfrey, Harry, isn't she healing you?" Alicia asked.

"Well yea but she won't let me leave."

"Harry."

"Yes?"

"You can't move your arms."

"Yep."

"How are you supposed to do anything outside the hospital wing?"

Harry pouted at the logical counter argument to his desire.

"Anyway, seeing as you can't shake my hand or leave, Harry, are we friends?" Angelina asked still giggling slightly at Harry's antics.

"Of course we're friends, do you think I'd take on a troll for anyone?" Harry said.

"Yes!" Both the girls and the twins chorused in causing them all to laugh once again.

"I still can't believe you did it." Fred said.

"I don't think any of us do, O' brother of mine." George chimed in. "When did Pomfrey say you could leave Harry?"

"Tomorrow and I have to go to classes." Harry said mournfully.

"Classes after your first day back after having a ceiling fall on your head, that's tough." Fred said

"Isn't it just, George." George said. "Madam Pomfrey what a slave driver making people do work when they're all healed."

"Oh shove off, George, I'm trying to feel sorry for myself."

"I still can't understand how you tell us apart?" Fred moaned.

Harry laughed at the twins while they sulked with near matching expressions. "Call it a metamorph's eye for detail."

Fred and George seemed to accept this with a shrug of their four combined shoulders but the girls seemed to want to know more. Alicia looked confused while Angelina looked intrigued.

"You're actually a metamorphmagus then?" Angelina asked.

"Yep I've been getting lessons from Tonks on how to find my limits and how to gain control." Harry explained.

"Who's Tonks?"

"Oh um, Tonks is a metamorphmagus in fifth year. Her full name is Nymphadora Tonks but she hates her first name and makes everyone call her Tonks instead."

"She's dating Charlie as well." George said.

"I didn't know that, does that mean Charlie's in fifth year as well?" Harry asked

"Naa he's in sixth year but they met before Hogwarts anyway, mum and Andromeda are friends."

"I still don't know what a meta-whatsit is called!" Alicia interrupted irately.

"Oh right I forgot you wouldn't know I guess they don't have metamorphs in the muggle world." Angelina said. "A metamorphmagus is someone who can change their looks without any outwards form of magic."

Alicia still looked a bit confused.

"Just watch I'll show you." Harry said attempting to use his legs to push himself into a more upright position.

Quickly studying Angelina's face he began to change.

His skin tone darkened changing from his pasty cupboard induced white to her dark Caribbean complexion. His eyes changed shape becoming more rounded than his usual almonds. Vibrant green became a light hazel colour. His nose shrank and his lips swelled. Finally his hair began to grow until it would've hung to his waist.

"It means I can do this." Harry said in a close copy of Angelina's voice. "Nope to high, Angelina could you say something for me?"

"What on earth have you done?" She said.

"What on earth have you done?" Harry imitated this time getting the voice perfect. "Thanks, that really helped voices are always a bit hit and miss."

By this point the Weasley twins were both cracking up, Fred was on the floor while George was bent double leaning on the bed for support.

"To answer your question, I've copied you. I've done this a couple of times: McGonagall, Fred, Dumbledore, plus loads of random forms Tonks comes up with. It's one of the ways I practice." Harry explained.

"But why me?" Angelina asked

Harry shrugged. "For fun, I've never copied anyone with hair that long. Except maybe Dumbledore though his is mainly beard."

"So you can change what you're face looks like?" Alicia said trying to verify what she understood.

"Well normally I can do my whole body but with an injury like this I can't."

"Wouldn't changing fix the breaks though?" Alicia asked.

"In theory yes but in practice it's extremely painful. Even fixing bones with Skele-grow over twelve hours hurts a lot, in less than a second it would excruciating." Harry explained.

"So when your better you can change your body to look like Angelina's?"

"Yep."

"I bet the twins were glad to have the pranking opportunities this presents." Alicia said chuckling to herself.

"Wait! Pranking?" Fred shouted out. "George how did we forget about this?"

Harry never got to find out why as Madam Pomfrey marched in and declared, "Alright you four you've caused enough trouble visiting hour is over, you need to leave." Harry tried to leave with them but Madam Pomfrey called with her back turned "Not you Mister Potter!" As she walked back to her office.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Eventually after what felt like an eternity in the hospital wing, Harry was discharged from the hospital wing the next morning. His arms and legs now fully functioning and able to put on his own glasses Harry was set free into Hogwarts castle.

As he slowly made his way to breakfast he realised that he was probably very lucky to only spend two days under the care of Madam Pomfrey stone ceilings were heavy and normally crushed the people they fell on. Though Professor McGonagall was there maybe she'd done something to soften the blow?

He was quickly distracted from his thoughts by the smells of breakfast. After smelling nothing but disinfectant for days the smells of bacon and sausages quickly drove all else from his mind.

He started running, he hadn't really noticed how hungry he was feeling ravenous he could eat a whole pig, and then it's brother and the rest of siblings and then maybe all it's friends as well. He was starving!

He took a right towards into a corridors that would lead to the grand staircase. He was about to take a left on to the staircase when Filch the caretaker appeared out of nowhere.

"Potter!" He screeched. "Running in the corridors, detention! Tonight, eight o'clock at my office."

And then before Harry could even protest the old bitter caretaker was off again of to catch more wrong do-ers, no matter how slight the discrepancy.

Shrugging it off as a problem for later, Harry went further along his journey towards the breakfast of his dreams.

When he got to the great hall, he saw Angelina and Alicia sitting at the Gryffindor table so he made his way towards them.

"Hey girls." He said as he took his seat on the other side of the table to them. "Had a good night's sleep?" He asked, other people seemed to ask how other people had slept so he thought that it would be a good, a safe option to open conversation with.

"Well, I slept fine, though I think Angelina couldn't sleep overly well." Alicia said, glancing over to her darker friend.

"I slept fine." The other girl snapped looking over at her friend and dorm mate glaring as if betrayed. But it was clear she hadn't as there were bags under her eyes, her head was lolling slightly and she'd been snapping at Alicia from the moment they'd woken up that morning.

"Fine, I'll say." Angelina finally said, cracking even though no one had pressured her into saying anything, and managing to sound both relieved and exasperated. "I did not sleep well, are you happy now." She glared at Harry and Alicia as if it was there direct fault that she didn't sleep.

"I was up most of the night worrying. Worrying about what you can do!" She said, now her glare was focuses solely on the Harry.

"While I don't understand what you're mad about, I've got to ask you to keep my…" Harry cast a worried look around him. "abilities quiet, I don't really want people to know."

"Fine, but now I know what you can do I can't get it off my mind." Angelina said her voice thankfully quieter than before. "You can copy what I look like exactly!"

Both Harry and Alicia cast a look at one another, what was she on about.

"Don't you get Alicia?!" Angelina looked close to ramming the idea into her friend's head with her fists and maybe with the help of the table in front of them all. "If he can copy our bodies he can see us, like underneath our robes."

Both Alicia's and Harry's eyes widened at Angelina's revelation. Alicia was shocked at how devious Harry's apparently innocent gift could be. Harry was shocked at how much of a problem this seemed to be for his new friends. Apparently when your body looks exactly as you want it to and you can change it with even the slightest thought you become a bit obtuse to other people's insecurity and privacy needs.

"I've honestly never really thought of doing that." Harry said, breaking the silence that had reigned since Angelina had voiced her concern. "And if it makes you feel better I have to seen anything to be able to copy it, so while I could copy your body, it wouldn't necessarily be correct. All I have to go on is the your shape through your robes so I tend to focus on the general shape instead of small details underneath."

Angelina and Alicia both took a moment to absorb the information Harry had just given them. Angelina looked less troubled by it all.

"If it would help we could meet up sometime and I could show you what it looks like when I change to copy someone else." Harry offered. He knew that people often feared what they didn't understand so he thought that if he showed the two girls what it was like they'd be less wary about his metamorphmagus abilities.

"That sounds like a good idea Harry, how about later today, that is if Madam Pomfrey's cleared you to change and all." Alicia said, nodding and after they'd shared a look so did Angelina.

"I can't do tonight, I have detention with Filch for running of all things! But tomorrow should be fine" Harry paused letting the girls agree to the change of dates. "How about you pick two people out, one girl and one boy, and I'll change into them tomorrow?"

The girls seemed to like this idea but any further planning was interrupted by the Weasley twins.

Sitting down on either side of the lone boy they said "So Harry,"

"We've been thinking." Fred said.

"About this metamorphmagus thing you have going." George said.

"And we think that it could be very useful to the cause."

"And by the cause we mean the general causing of mischief and mayhem."

"So what do you say Harry?"

"Are you ready to become the third member of the Weasley twins?"

Harry looked around the hall, it was still quite early and not many people were awake let alone at breakfast and the people who were in the great hall were mainly focuses on getting food into themselves.

So Harry gave his answer, he morphed into a copy of Fred and George.

* * *

Classes passed quicker than Harry remembered now he sat with with the girls. While they still joked around in History and lost a multitude of points in potions, Angelina managed to help Harry and the twins out in Herbology, mainly by making sure they stayed away from the plants that would hospitalise them. Alicia turned out to be a wiz at astronomy and helped all of them out on the long essay they'd been set the week before.

Of course Harry and the twins tried to help out there new friends as well. Harry was still able to all the spell work they'd been assigned in class and made sure the two girls were up to speed while Fred and George had a surprising amount of knowledge about potions and charms respectively.

Eventually classes and free time finished and Harry had to go to his detention. Fred and George had offered to break the rules as well so he wouldn't be alone but Harry had turned down their offer, it wasn't worth them all going down just to spare Harry of an hour alone with Filch.

Filch's office was on the ground floor in a corridor that branched out of the entrance hall. The corridor was dark, unlit and, despite it being the home of the caretaker, had even more cobwebs than Harry had come to expect in most parts of the castle.

Knowing he'd left the common room at ten minutes to eight o'clock, Harry was hoping that he'd managed to get to the office in the amount of time he'd given himself to do so. His old watch, which before had been Dudley's had stopped working just after he started going to Hogwarts. Knocking on the door, he didn't have to wait long for a response.

"Potter!" Filch called as he stuck his head out through the gap in the door. "Get inside, now!" He shouted before disappearing once again into his own domain.

Harry looked down the corridor and briefly contemplating running before a shout of "Potter, now!" Came from inside and he gave up all hope of escape.

The office itself was in a worse state than the corridor that led to it. Filing cabinets were overflowing with vast amounts of paperwork, some of which had already fallen to the floor. Filch's desk resembled less of a desk and more of a landfill heap found in the muggle world. There was a cabinet that was tucked away in the corner, padlocked shut, that shook every few seconds as well as having the added feature of an upside down chair on top of it. And while it was thought that Filch was was in charge of his own office the evidence suggested it was the spiders that had covered almost the whole room with their webs. Only a narrow walkway from the door to a stack of forms was free of the spider webs. There was a clock and Harry had hoped to verify that he had intact made in time for his detention but the clock was stuck thirteen minutes past two so Harry guessed it was broken.

"Now you're here, time to serve your punishment." Filch said, his voice resonating with joy. "Now, the offence: running in the corridors." The caretaker said allowed as he copied it down on to the form he'd taken from the spider web free pile. "Punishment given: detention. Suggested further action: expulsion, this one looks like he'll be a repeat offender." He wrote down before signing it off with his name.

"Now this come will find it's way to the Headmaster tomorrow and if he sees sense he'll expel you." Filch said, an unnatural grin on his face. "Get another one of you horrible little brats away from this school; you don't deserve to be here, hardly none of do."

He'd turned away from Harry but he was still talking. "You're not pure, you don't have the right to learn magic. You think you're so special just because you can wave your little wand around and Sparks come out the end of it!" He span around again a finger pointing at Harry's face. "YOU don't deserve to be here you filthy… brat, you son of a mudb-" Suddenly there was a crash from upstairs causing Filch to stop his rant and scream "PEEVES!" Before running out of the door and locking it behind him.

Now alone in Filch's office Harry took another look around. There didn't appear to be any more in there than Harry had first thought: old detention reports, cleaning reports from the house elves, a pair of manacles attached to the wall. That was until he saw a label on one of the many draws that made up the filing cabinets that said "CATION: DANGEROUS OBJECTS" which of course only intrigued the young occupant of the office. Reaching thought the spider webs Harry opened the draw.

Inside was an old folding knife and an old piece of parchment.

Harry's first thought was to take both of them, but his second thought stopped him. _What if they're cursed and that's why they're dangerous?_

 _But if they really are dangerous would the teachers allow Filch to keep them,_ he reasoned with himself. _Couldn't the teachers just remove the curses from them if they were really dangerous. It's far more likely this is just Filch being petty about something someone he didn't like had on them._

Harry nodded agreeing with his reasoning, taking both the knife and the parchment and putting them deep into his robe pockets.

He then realised that he didn't want to get caught with these confiscated items on his person: he needed to get out of this office.

Trying the unlocking charm, "Alohomora", didn't work and Harry was stumped, short of blowing down the door and then trying to piece it back together, he was stuck.

But then a head came through the ceiling.

Now this was still a very surreal thing for Harry as ghosts was a topic that was firmly stuck in the fiction department or the heads of mental patients. Now you could say the same for magic but Harry had had many examples throughout his childhood of magic, even if he didn't know it at the time. It was safe to say that Harry had never seen a ghost come through a wall in his muggle life.

"Hello." The head from the ceiling said. "Oh, I see you've already found them, good. You appear to be even more like you're father than I thought." The head may have been pleased but Harry was getting more confused by the second.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are." Harry said somewhat sheepishly.

The face smiled kindly, "Oh, that's no matter, I didn't expect you to. You're not a Ravenclaw and most of them don't know. I'm Helena, though most call me the Grey Lady and I am the ghost of Ravenclaw house." Helena seemed slightly sad at this which confused Harry but he didn't want to upset her more by asking why it upset her.

"You said you knew my father?" Harry prompted.

"Yes, he and his friends were very kind to me when they were at school, so I thought I'd repay their kindness by helping you out." Helena said. "Now to get out, you'll have to get the knife back out of your pocket, Dumbledore enchanted the lock after Padfoot broke in, so an unlocking charm won't work."

Harry fished the knife from his pocket.

"Good, run the blade between the door and the wall."

Harry did as instructed.

"Excellent, now the door is open, however the door will reseal when the door shuts again."

Pushing the door open Harry and Helena, who was now the right way up again, went into the corridor.

"Good now you should get a move on I would expect Filch to be back soon. The distraction I bribed some Ravenclaws to make won't last too long." Harry looked interested in how she bribed the usually rule abiding Ravenclaws to break the rule. "I'd told them I'd show them the book they need to do their homework if they did it." The grey lady elaborated, a smirk gracing her features.

Harry was about to leave when he turned and said, "Could you tell me about my dad?"

Another smile graced the Ravenclaw ghost's features though this time it was more kindly, more like a mother would smile at an inquisitive child. "Another time, young one. You haven't got much time. Now about the parchment, to use it touch it with your wand and then I'd hope you'll solemnly swear that you're up to no good and when you've managed your mischief it should close once more."

Harry went to touch the parchment with his wand when Helena interrupted him. "Not here, child, you haven't got much time. Now go, I have a book to find."

With that parting message she went back up through the the ceiling and left Harry alone in the dark corridor who, heeding her words, quickly left and began the trek back up to Gryffindor common room.

* * *

"Draco magnus asinum" Harry said to the Fat lady's portrait, who sniffed loudly before swinging open allowing Harry to enter the common room.

He spotted Fred, George, Alicia and Angelina sitting in the corner of the common room furthest from the fireplace, the seventh years having claimed the seats closest. He rushed over to them thankful they were sat away from everyone else, he hadn't learnt any magic that could stop people listening into their conversations.

"Hey guys." He said before sitting between Angelina and Fred.

A chorus of "Hey Harry"s came before George asked "how was your detention with Filch."

"Yea, we've only had detention with McGonagall and Sprout so far, what's Filch like?" Fred asked, Angelina smirked and Alicia rolled her eyes when he said only.

"Umm, it was okay really." Harry said. "He just ranted at me not being worthy, or something, of not studying magic because I'm filthy." Harry saw the Weasleys and Angelina looked horrified though Alicia looked just as confused as Harry felt. "Is that wrong or something. It's like Madam Pomfrey forced me in the shower before I left the hospital wing this morning."

Angelina smiled weakly before saying. "It's not about how you smell, Harry. It's about your parents."

"What's wrong with my parents?" Harry asked feeling offended at the accusation.

"Nothing is actually wrong with them, Harry." Fred said quickly.

"No, it's an old prejudice about muggleborn witches and wizards." George added.

"Old, so called 'Pure Bloods" are people with two magical parents and a history of only magical ancestors." Angelina said. "They discriminate against people with muggle parents, like Alicia." The girl in question looked shocked at this revelation. "They use derogatory terms like 'mudblood' but sometimes they've gone further."

"Like the whole war." Fred said. "You-Know-Who lead the blood purists and they tried to take over the wizarding world and remove all the muggleborns, sometimes by killing them."

"That's one of the reasons why people think You-Know-Who went after you're family, Harry." George said. "Your mother was a muggleborn, but she was also a very powerful witch. According to our parents she had managed to survive a fight with Voldemort, not many people could boast that. She was walking proof that blood supremacy was a lie."

"Most people know that anyway." Angelina said. "Only a select few buy into blood supremacy but unfortunately those few tend to be the 'elite' of our world. They have a lot of money and a lot of influence in our government so even those who people knew fought for You-Know-Who managed to get out of jail time by buying off corrupt politicians."

"Well that sucks." Alicia said.

"That pretty much sums it up" George said, his grin didn't reach his eyes.

"Anything else happen in your detention, Harry?" Fred asked.

"Oh yeah loads more." Harry said, his eyes lighting up. "I met Helena."

"Helena? Who's Helena?" Alicia asked.

"She's the Ravenclaw ghost, though apparently most people call her the grey lady." Harry explained. "But anyway, she arranged a distraction that made Filch run off. Then I found these." Harry said putting the knife and the parchment on the floor in the middle of their little circle. "They were in a draw that was marked 'DANGEROUS OBJECTS' but I don't think they are."

"What could be so dangerous about a piece of parchment." Angelina said. "It's like I understand why the knife was there but why the parchment?"

"I'm not sure about the parchment, but the knife isn't your usual knife." Harry said. "It can open locked doors. It's how I escaped Filch, he'd left the door locked when he went chasing whoever made the distraction for Helena."

"Sweet, this is so cool." Fred said picking up the knife. "This will definitely help us getting around the castle without being caught."

"Careful it still looks sharp." Angelina said, just as Fred cut himself on it. "You need to go to the hospital wing, though how we're going to explain this I don't know."

"Paper cut?" Alicia suggested. "Or parchment cut, rather why don't you use paper it's much easier to use."

"What even is paper?" George said, who'd taken the knife from his brother, folded it back in half and put back on the floor. Alicia just shook her head, refusing to answer.

"After Harry's tales of the hospital wing I think I'll take my chances thank you." Said Fred who was sucking his cut finger.

"You could ask an older student if they know how to heal cuts, or Harry he might know something." Angelina said, looking at the only non-ginger boy in their group.

"Nope, sorry. I don't know any healing magic, I'll it up soon." Harry promised.

"Did the Grey Lady give you any clues about the parchment?" George asked as Fred went to find one of the Gryffindor prefects to heal his finger.

"Yep, well I think so she said 'touch it with your wand and then I'd hope you'll solemnly swear that you're up to no good and when you've managed your mischief it should close'." Harry said As he took out his wand. "So I think I've got to say a passcode for it to do whatever it is." Harry paused taking a deep breath in. "I Solemnly swear I'm up to no good."

Fred came back a minute later to find them all staring at the parchment, "What is it?"

* * *

 **Hello people of Fanfiction, as you can see I'm updating this story again. I've suddenly stumbled across some inspiration and it hasn't dried up yet so expect more updates in the near future.  
I'm still listening for pairings and not just for Harry so if you want your voice heard please comment or send me a PM  
Thanks for reading  
An Average White Writer**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Are you sure we won't get caught?" Alicia asked for what felt like the thousandth time.

"Yep, well like sixty percent sure we won't." George said with a smirk at the worried girl behind him.

"I wouldn't worry Alicia." Harry said, pushing his teasing friend into the wall. "The map hasn't let us down yet, and as long as we can see people coming we won't get caught."

"But what if it doesn't show us where people are and they take us by surprise?" Alicia asked.

"Alicia, relax." Angelina said as she put a calming hand on her friend's shoulder. "You've just got to forget the consequences and enjoy the thrill of being out in a deserted castle with friends. And remember that if we do get caught we can blame the boys for dragging us out and corrupting us."

Harry protested but both twins said, "Fair enough"

"What!?" Harry said, "We haven't dragged them out or corrupted them."

"Harrykins, we've already corrupted you, what makes you think we haven't corrupt these lovely ladies as well." George said while patting Harry's shoulder in a patronising fashion.

"Oh whatever." Harry said.

They continued their walk guided by the marauder's map and Harry and Angelina's lumos charm.

They turned a corner and then Fred called out to the group, "Hey there's a secret passageway behind this statue, though I can't see where it goes though."

The statute in question was a one eyed witch. It was an ugly with a gaping hole where the others eye should have been.

"The map says the password is Dissendium" Fred said as he tapped the statue with his wand causing the witch to lean forwards revealing a passage way behind it.

"Who wants to go first?" Fred asked, a mani me grin stretched across his face.

"I'll go." Harry said before squeezing between the statue and the wall. His feet finding solid ground in the passageway, though he had to use his wand less hand to steady himself. "Careful on this side, it's quite steep."

The secret passage way was paved with cobblestones, while the walls were made of the same stone that the rest of the castle. _This must have been made by the founders as well_ , thought Harry.

One by one the group climbed through the whole, once everyone was inside the passageway, the gap between the witch and the wall closed leaving their only light source the points of Angelina's and Harry's wands.

The group carefully made their way down the steep slope using their hands to stop themselves from falling and occasionally helping Harry and Angelina steady themselves as they only had one hand free.

The passageway eventually levelled out and the group could speed up their walking pace. After about half an hour Fred declared, "We're off the map, we've left Hogwarts!"

"We've left the grounds!" Alicia exclaimed. "Do you know how much trouble we'll be in if we get caught!?"

"Lots." Harry said, "But let's just not get caught. We'll see where this passageway comes out and then go back to the castle and then back to our beds, does that sound alright?"

Fred, George and Angelina all nodded their head.

"Fine!" Alicia said, with a huff. "But at the first sign of trouble I'm taking the map and going back."

When the group started moving along the passageway again it soon became clear that the floor was sloping upwards. Though it was not as steep as it had been immediately after the entrance it was still enough to make Harry's calves burn slightly.

Not long after the passageway ended, with a stone wall. There was no way through.

"Oh come on we've all this way and it just ends!" George protested, "There must be a way through!" Lighting his own wand he began to examine the wall closer, Fred joined him scouring the wall for any possible door.

"Maybe there's a password, like at the witch what was that again?" Fred suggested.

Harry turned as he heard George mutter "Dissendium" and then then Fred shout "Oh for the sake of Merlin!" Why Fred's outcry brought a grin to Harry's face he couldn't help but think that maybe they'd missed a doorway or a trap door in the darkness of the tunnel.

 _A trap door?_ Harry thought.

Spinning around once more he held his wand up to the ceiling. Smirking he called "Guys I've found the way through."

The twins span round looking for the exit Harry had miraculously found, following where Harry's wand was pointing. There mouth comically hanging open.

After quickly regaining control of his jaw Fred said, "Good find, Harrykins. Though I'm sure Fred and I would have found it eventually."

"Of course, Fred." Harry said, grinning when Fred said, "Again, you never let us get away with it" under his breath.

Harry went to reach the trap door but couldn't reach, missing by perhaps an inch. It was then painfully obvious that Harry was the shortest member of their little group.

"Ahh, little Harrykins can't reach the door." George taunted, the others laughing at Harry's misfortune.

"Oh stuff you guys." Harry said as he changed his body to become a foot taller and gained a lot of muscle mass "Not laughing now, are you?" Which only served to make them laugh more at Harry's obscure solution.

Using his new found height and strength Harry lifted the trap door and pushed it to the side allowing for people to pull themselves through. Harry helped Alicia through first her being the next shortest only being about an inch taller than Harry's usual height. Grabbing her hips with both hands he lifted her over his head so she was high enough for her get her hands and a foot on to the new floor, making Alicia incredibly thankful that she'd chosen to change out of her school skirt and into a pair of jeans before coming on their adventure. Angelina who hadn't changed out of her school skirt choose to get a boost off of Harry's knee instead before lifting herself high enough to be able to sit in the new room.

Harry then lifted himself up through the trapdoor. Once he was his two feet again he looked down back into the passageway they had found behind the one eyed witch and called "Can't you reach the trap door." Taunting the twins as they had done not minutes before.

Unfortunately for Harry's taunting the twins could reach the door and with a lot of struggling and some jumping they managed to get through the trapdoor.

"What is this place?" Asked Fred being the last to come through the trapdoor he hadn't had a good look around.

"It's a cellar." Alicia said. "Or at least we think it."

"A cellar for who though?" Fred asked.

"We don't kn-" Alicia started

"Honeydukes." Angelina said with a grin. She'd prized open one of the many crates and was now holding a bar of Honeydukes signature chocolate.

Both twins cried "Really?" While Harry and Alicia asked "Who?"

Angelina smilies, showing all teeth. "Yep, the one and only. Honeydukes is a family that make sweets and chocolate for wizards. Think like magical Cadburys but on a smaller scale."

This seemed to clear all the confusion up, and the group dispersed looking around the chocolate maker's cellar finding all sorts of edible treasures.

"We've got to take some of this stuff back." George said.

Alicia looked startled. "But that would be stealing!"

"Oh yeah." George looking down trodden. "Forgot about that."

"What if we left some gold behind?" Harry asked pulling out a few galleons from his pockets. "How much do you reckon," he quickly counted the money in his hand, "4 galleons, 3 sickles and seven knuts get us?"

"Harry do you not know how much a galleon is?" Alicia asked while the others looked dumbfounded at Harry's apparent complete lack of financial knowledge. Harry shook his head. "Harry a galleon is worth about ten pounds! Each of these chocolate bars are probably worth about fifty pence! The sweats even less!"

"Oh." Harry said simply. He'd vastly underestimated just how much money he'd been left by his parents.

"We could probably take a whole crate of that chocolate for that much, Harry." Fred said, before his eyes widened. "Harry we could get a whole crate of chocolate for that much!"

"That's if Harry's okay with spending that much on chocolate alone." Angelina said through a smile.

"Is it okay, Harry? George and I can probably get a galleon between us if you want us to pay you back."

"So could I." Angelina said.

"And me!" Alicia chimed in.

"Okay, so I'll leave four galleons where the crate is." Harry verified.

The others nodded.

"Good, let's go back then."

Fred went to lift the crate only to find he couldn't. "Merlin this is heavy." George tried to help but even between the two of them they couldn't lift it.

"Gods, I thought it was me who'd grown up in the muggle world." Alicia sighed. "Wingardium leviosa" she said clearly while swishing and flicking her wand just as Professor Flitwick had taught them all.

Alicia levitated the crate down through the trapdoor first .Harry went down next this time, helping Alicia, then Angelina and then Fred down through the trapdoor. George decided he wanted to jump, only to slip and land on his bum when once again in the secret passage way. Joining in the laughter at his own misfortune the group set off back towards Hogwarts after Harry had moved the trap door back into place. They made the trek back up the slightly perilous slope and back out through the whole behind the one eyed witch after checking that the way was clear of teachers, ghosts or annoying caretaker's cats.

* * *

The next morning they had defence against the dark arts followed by transfiguration. While both were favoured subjects for Harry, he was too tired after last nights adventure to pay any kind of attention.

In defence against the dark arts Quirrel lectured on the theory and history of the sting jinx. He'd done this lesson several times since the start of school in September and now it was November! Harry, Fred and George had managed to get seats at the back so they were snoozing in the semi-safety the back of the classroom presented. Alicia and Angelina hadn't been lucky the remaining seats at the back being nabbed by Slytherins: Chloë Nott and Elizabeth Zabini. So instead they were sitting in front of the boys trying to at least appear awake.

In transfiguration they weren't so lucky. Not only was Professor McGonagall a competent teacher who could control her classroom but by the time they'd been able to drag their sleep deprived bodies from the defence classroom all the to the transfiguration one there were only seats left at the front available for them to use.

To make it worse they were doing a new practical transfiguration today. For the past week and a bit Professor McGonagall had been lecturing about the difference between transfiguring small inanimate objects and larger inanimate objects into other inanimate objects. Harry knew that McGonagall had been simplifying the theory as in his advanced lessons she'd gone into the ideas of mass-energy and how the two parts, mass and energy, were the same thing just in different states and that transfiguration is just the manipulation of this idea.

So now the class was attempting to transfigure the wooden cubes they'd been given in a steel cube. Harry managed to do it first try. While he hadn't done this exact transfiguration he'd done similar ones in his advanced lessons. While the wooden to steel transfiguration was difficult for Harry to do, he did find it hard to make his brain wake up enough to think about what he was doing. Something his friends had trouble with if what he saw was right.

Angelina hadn't begun to attempt to transfigure her cube, instead using it as a headrest while she scanned over a text book.

Alicia was trying but so far had only got one corner to turn a silvery colour, it certainly didn't look like it was steal it look more like she'd made the wood silver.

George was dozing on his desk facing his cube, if you used your imagination enough you could think he was studying the cube.

Fred attempted the transfiguration but missed the cube. The table gave a rattle as the magic passed through it. Harry thought that he may have accidentally transfigured the table if he'd put enough power into it.

The rest of the lesson passed slowly. Harry attempted to help his friends but none of them got it by the end of the lesson.

When the lesson ended and everyone was packing up to leave Professor McGonagall call, " Mister Potter please stay behind."

So Harry did, telling his friends to meet him in the great hall and taking his bag full of his textbooks and parchment with him to the front of McGonagall's classroom.

She stood there glaring at Harry until the last of her other pupils had left.

"Mister Potter, can you tell me why you missed your advanced transfiguration lesson yesterday evening?" The strict professor said.

Harry's eyes widened. "Oh Merlin, I'm so sorry Professor I forgot to tell you: I had detention with Filch."

"Mister Potter, you were in the hospital wing almost all weekend how were you in detention with _Mister_ Flitch." She said putting strain on the title Harry had missed earlier.

"I ran to breakfast from the hospital wing." Harry half mumbled while looking at his feet.

"I'm sorry. Did you say you ran?"

"Yes professor."

"You got a detention with Mister Flitch for running in the corridor?"

"Yes professor.

"Mister Potter, are you aware that running in the corridors isn't against the rule at Hogwarts?"

"Umm no professor."

"We'll rearrange for this evening, yes?"

"Okay professor."

"Now go to your break I need to talk to Mister Flitch about what we punish students for."

"Yes professor." Harry said thinking about how he was going to have to rearrange his meeting with Angelina and Alicia about his metamorphmagus abilities. Tomorrow would probably be fine.

* * *

It was at lunch the next day when all four of his friends were very excited and Harry didn't know why.

"What's got all of you so worked up?" Harry asked finally giving into his curiosity after eating most of his sandwich guessing at why they'd be this excited.

All of them looked at him weirdly.

"Harry, it's flying today!" Angelina almost yelled at him.

"Flying?" Harry queried still not getting it.

"Yes, flying!" Said George.

"Like on a broomstick like in all the stories, Harry." Alicia explained for her fellow muggle-raised friend.

"Oh yeah, I forgot you weren't there for the first flying lesson." Fred chimed in. "I think you were in the hospital wing after being attacked by the venomous tentacular."

"Oh won't I be behind everyone though?" Harry questioned.

"Well yes but all people raised by muggles are behind almost all wizard raised children." Angelina explained. "Though I wouldn't worry about it too much, Alicia picked it up quite quickly in our last lesson, I'm sure you'll be fine."

Those word were echoing in his ears when Madam Hooch called him to the side when she set the other up, practicing flying around in a circle.

 _You'll be fine._

"Right as you missed the last lesson we'll go over it quickly now." The flying instructor said

 _You'll be fine._

Step to the left of your broom, place your right hand over the broom and say 'up'."

 _You'll be fine._

He did so and the broom jumped up into his hand.

"Good Mister Potter. Now mount the broom."

 _You'll be fine._

He did, and while nothing happened he felt a rush of adrenaline pump through his system: preparing him for flight.

"Good grip, Mister Potter, not many first timers are this good, though you may want to hold it a little tighter. Now on three I want you to push off of the ground hover and come back to the ground, you understand?"

 _You'll be fine._

He nodded

"1, 2, 3!"

He pushed off and he understood why the twins, Angelina and Alicia were all so excited flying was brilliant.

* * *

It was that evening when Harry could be found in an empty classroom with Alicia and Angelina. They'd managed to ditch Fred and George while they raced at Charlie about Harry's skill on a broom. He was here to fulfill a promise he'd made to them yesterday breakfast.

The two girls had picked out the people and pointed them out to Harry at dinner. They'd picked Gryffindor seventh year chaser Aiden O'Brien and Ravenclaw head girl Maddie Grounds.

"Who do you want to see first?" Harry asked

O'Brien was the overwhelming choice.

Remembering O'Brian's body, Harry began to change.

Harry grew, O'Brian was about six foot three inches tall which was well over a foot taller than Harry currently was in his natural form. Harry's muscles began to change into a lean quidditch player. O'Brien preferred to wear tighter shirts and trousers so Harry could get a good guess at what he looked like.

On his face his eyes became blue and his hair shortened and turned blond. His chin became pointier and his ears more rounded. His skin tone darkened as well giving him the look of someone who spent a lot of time outside.

Harry was thankful that he'd changed into some of his hand-me-down muggle clothes as with O'Brian's giant frame he may have ripped his school robes. Though even Dudley's old clothes were too small now.

But that didn't matter anymore. The girls had wanted to see under, to see how accurate he could be.

He started taking off his T-shirt when Alicia asked "What are you doing?"

"I thought you asked to see how accurate I could be, you can't see that if I'm wearing this." Harry said waving at the rest of his clothes with the arm that was now free from Dudley's old T-shirt.

He continued taking off his clothes until he'd tooled his thumbs in the elastic of his underwear.

"Aren't you going to stop there, Harry." Angelina asked looking a bit worried.

"Why? None of this is me and it's unlikely that it looks like him either." Harry replied as he let the underwear fall next to the trousers he'd discarded.

The girls instead of examining his entire changed body like he thought they would were instead staring at one part.

His, O'Brian's, penis.

Now if this were his own body, Harry may have felt a bit self conscious but as Tonks had taught him, it wasn't his body he shouldn't be ashamed.

"Is there something wrong?" Harry asked when the girls still hadn't looked anywhere else.

"I just didn't know they got that big." Alicia said quietly, Angelina nodding besides her.

"Oh right." Harry said looking down between his legs and batting his new penis slightly making it away from side to side: it was rather large, almost to his knee. "They might not but I'm not sure I grew everything by the same amount so this is a guess."

The girls seemed to accept this and Harry began to change into the head girl: Maddie Grounds.

His hair was the first thing he really focused on changed growing till he reached the middle of his back of his new five foot ten frame and turning a deep chocolate brown.

His eyes stayed blue though just a touch lighter and his face became more of a heart shape.

Grounds' body appeared to be quite curvy through her robes. Wide hips and a narrower waist swept up to a large chest but slim shoulders.

When looking at the finished result of Grounds the girls laughed.

"Harry what's this." Angelina cried through laughter pointing at his changed chest.

"Oh um, well I didn't really know what made the lump in the girls robe so I took a guess. It's always looked right from the outside." Defended Harry, he was right he hadn't known what breasts looked like so guessed that there was just one large breast going all the way across his chest.

"And Harry, how do you think girls pee?" Alicia asked pointing at where his legs met.

"Well I knew girls don't have a penis that's what makes them girls. But I didn't know what it actually was, only that it didn't show so I just don't do anything." Harry explained why there was just bare skin instead of a vagina. "Could you tell me what it's supposed to look like."

"Why don't you ask Tonks," Angelina suggested.

* * *

After Harry's 'show' for Angelina and Alicia everything seemed to settle down again.

Lesson were given though Harry still couldn't do any potions work for the life of him. He didn't understand why anything happened and Snape the man-bat hybrid teacher did not help things.

Harry and his friends went exploring. Using the map they found new routes around the school. Secret passageways behind paintings and tapestries. Some had enterance pretending to be wall some you had to think about going down stairs as you climbed another flight. But most importantly they'd found the kitchens which meant free found whenever they liked.

But Christmas was coming up soon, most people were leaving tomorrow! And Harry knew that his uninterrupted routine would become interrupted.

Angelina, Alicia and the twins were all going home for Christmas to be with their families and generally be merry.

But Harry didn't have a family to go home to.

Or at least no family who wanted him there as well.

Fred and George were particularly looking forwards to going home over the holidays. Apparently their eldest brother Bill was coming home after finishing his curse breakers internship with Gringotts in Egypt. Bill had been in Egypt since the September the year before so they'd missed him a lot. Of course there was also the thought of their youngest siblings.

While talked about Ron, just the same as they spoke about their other brothers it was clear to Harry that their only sister and youngest sibling was their favourite.

Ginny is what they called her but Ginevra was apparently her full name. Though he'd been informed that if he called her that he'd be on the receiving end of her bat-bogey hex next time she could get her hands on her mother's wand. Which the other twin corrected that maybe she wouldn't hex Harry before both of them collapsed into giggles.

Percy was getting very stressed. According to him, third year was very important and you had to work very hard. Though Harry couldn't see any major differences between second and third year apart from third years take electives as well. Though he didn't question Percy on it he didn't want to suffer through an hour long rant about the importance of whatever it was this time.

Charlie was excited mainly because he'd finally convinced Tonks to come over to the Burrow. Harry had spoken to Tonks and she was dreading it apparently Mrs Weasley was a force to reckoned with with rumours going round about what she did to some of Bill's ex-girlfriends still circulated Hogwarts.

It was then when stuck his head out of the balcony that was outside the first years boys dorm and shouted, "Hey Harry, why aren't you packing?" down to Harry.

"I'm not going home for Christmas, Fred, I'm staying at Hogwarts." Harry replied.

"Didn't I say? Mum said you could come to ours if you had nowhere else to go." Fred said as he struck his palm against his forehead.

Harry laughed at his friend. "No you didn't say. But I wouldn't want to impose."

"Don't worry you won't, Mum always makes enough food for twice as many Weasleys an extra Potter will hardly be noticed."

"Well if you're sure."

"I'm sure, Potter. Let's get you packed."

* * *

 **Hello again, a special results day update for you, I'm feeling great after getting my place at university. I hope you enjoyed this one.  
I'm still hoping for your say on pairings for all my main characters (Harry, Fred, George, Alicia and Angelina) and all opinions are valued  
Thanks  
An Average White Writer**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

They were on the Hogwarts express back to London when Harry began to get worried.

What if the Weasleys didn't like him?

What if they made him leave halfway through the holiday?

What if he ruined their Christmas and Fred and George stopped liking him?

All these question were whizzing around Harry's head as the train puffed along at a consistent pace.

In his compartment he was joined by Fred, George, Alicia, Angelina and Lee. Lee was Harry's other dorm mate and while Lee was an alright guy he always tried hard and he had his heart in the right place but he came across as a bit… slow at times and often strugglers with classwork and homework.

Lee was entertaining the twins with a story about a quidditch match his parents had taken him to, something about the Falcons against the Harpies. The game was reported as tight and while Harpies were the better team Lee said that the Falcons didn't seem to mind bending and breaking the rules.

Harry, who was only half listening to Lee's commentary, was trying to keep track of the conversation between Alicia and Angelina.

The two girls were talking about what they'd got other people for Christmas, carefully avoiding what they'd got for the people in the compartment they were sitting in. Both girls had got a bottle of Ogden's Firewhiskey, whatever that was, with the help of their mothers. While Angelina had gotten her mother a hamper from Honeydukes, though this was owl ordered and not taken from the cellar. Alicia had got her a mother a new pair of knitting needles, apparently it was a factored pastime of hers.

Their conversation quickly moved on to other topics like what they wanted to get, if they were going to any parties and if they were going to meet up over the holidays.

Now tuning the girls out as well Harry was left alone with his worries and thoughts.

In an effort to not focus on what could go wrong at the burrow, he began to think of new ways the spells he knew could be used.

The levitation charm: possibly throwing objects at enemies or the enemies themselves.

The lumos charm: possibly temporarily blind an opponent if the flash is powerful enough

The tickling hex: possible distraction or means of waking a person up.

The disarming charm: possible means of theft, could you disarm someone of their wallet?

Inanimate-to-Inanimate transfigure: interior decorating, physical defences in a duel, hiding important items, making your clothes smarter, building houses

Stunning jinx:

This one had stumped Harry. What else could you use a stunning jinx for. _You could use it to annoy stupid people in a non-combat situation_ , Harry suggested mentally. Apart from stunning animals instead of humans Harry couldn't think of anymore uses.

He kept thinking about different spells as they travelled. Lee left at one point, though Harry didn't notice. Angelina, Alicia, Fred and George had changed into muggle clothing at one point, Harry hadn't noticed this either. It was only when Fred poked him in hard in the ribs that Harry began to notice things outside of his head.

"Oww, that hurt." Harry complained.

"Well tough, we're almost at King's Cross and you're still in your school robes. You can't go into the muggle world dressed like that!" Fred said.

Harry looked down at his attire. His robes would stick out a mile in the muggle world and that was before you took into account the Gryffindor and Hogwarts embroidery.

Harry pulled some clothes from his trunk that was stored in the rack above them. Smirking at the girls in front of him, he quickly made subtle changes to his body before pulling his robe from his shoulders.

As he was doing so Angelina said "Aren't you going to go to the toilet to get changed, Harry?"

"Nope." He said popping the 'p' as he smirked again as he started unbuttoning his school shirt revealing his now well defined pectorals and abdominal muscles.

"Oh, come on!" George moaned. "There's no way those are real!"

"How could you say such a thing!" Harry cried in mock outrage. "I worked really hard to get these." By this time he'd manage to unbutton his school trousers and had gotten his flies down.

"Really, Harry?" Fred said. "Are you just going to strip off to show us this fake body of yours?"

"Not all of it." Harry said as he kicked his shoes off to make getting his trousers over his feet before doing just that.

Harry was standing in the middle of their compartment in just his boxer shorts and socks. Alicia was giggling in the corner next to the window while the twins 'tried' to block the view of Harry underwear with their hands while making having noises. Angelina was shaking her head while she covered her face with her hands.

"I'm friends with idiots!" Angelina confessed to no one in particular.

Harry finally pulled on the clothes he'd taken from his trunk, a very loose plain purple T-shirt and a worn pair of too big dark blue jeans.

"I still don't know why you wear clothes that big, Harry." Alicia said.

"They're the clothes my relatives gave me."

"Well, yes, but why didn't use magic to make them fit better?"

"You can do that!?" Harry looked amazed.

"Of course you can! You just use the fitting charm, my mum taught me it for when I start to dev-... umm grow. It was designed to make kids clothes last longer when they go through growth spurts. " Angelina said, her cheeks colouring slightly.

"Can you teach me?" Harry asked.

"Yes, of course. Okay so get your wand and run it down the week and say 'fissco'. Say when you want me to stop." Angelina said as she did on one side of Harry's T-shirt. Seeing it shrink around him, Harry asked Angelina to stop when it was getting a bit tight around his more than usual defined chest knowing it would fit his normally skinny frame well when he changed back.

"Why don't you try on your trousers?" Angelina suggested.

Running his wand along the outside seam of his jeans he made them shrink until they were the correct length and becoming tight around his calves and hamstrings.

"You don't look half bad now, Harry." Angelina said from her seat.

"Why thank you, my dear lady." He replied with an exaggerated bow.

The others were still laughing at Harry's antics when they felt the train brake.

"We must be almost there." George said, as Harry started putting his black school shoes back on, now that his clothes fit him properly he wanted to look like he'd made an effort to look smart, plus all his other shoes were too big and he didn't have time to see if Alicia knew how to change those as well.

As the train pulled into the station the five friends looked out the window to see smiling and waving parents and siblings of various Hogwarts students.

A twinge of sadness forgotten as the twins urged Harry to grab his trunk from the rack and make their way to a door.

Once the train had stopped and they were on the platform, the Weasley contingent wasn't hard to find. Though mainly because they found the students first.

Their only warning was a flash of red before Fred was hit in the chest by a flying red headed torpedo.

"I missed you too Gin." Fred said as he wrapped his arms the small girl. But as soon as she was there she was gone again, this time hugging George.

"I know you've missed them, Ginevra, but give them some space." The small red head pulled her face away from her brother to glare at the woman you'd just called her by her full name but let go despite her annoyance. "Fred, George it's so nice that you came back for Christmas." The woman then turned to Harry. "And you must be Harry, dear, the twins have told me lots about."

"Umm, yes I am, Mrs Fred and George's mum."

"Mrs Weasley, will be fine dear. Now let's gather the others and then we can go back to the Burrow, yes?" Mrs Weasley said with a smile before busking off along the platform with Ginny trailing behind.

"Hey Fred, George." Said another red head, Harry guessed it was Ron as the twins only had one younger brother and this one was shorter than them. "We, hi I'm Ron, Ron Weasley." The younger boy said to Harry as he stuck out his hand for him to shake.

Harry grinned. "I'm Harry, Harry Potter." He said as he took the offered hand.

Following the rest of the Weasleys, Harry listened as Ron told the twins what had happened at home since they'd been gone. Apparently Ron's favourite quidditch team, the Cannons, hadn't won a game over their first term at Hogwarts but Ginny's, the Harpies, had won all but one and she'd been gloating about it for ages. Their Dad had enchanted a car to turn invisible as well as some other stuff but Ron didn't know what. One of the chickens died. The ghoul was upset but no one knew why. And Bill had come home from Egypt with an earring and their mum was mad at him for it.

Soon, Mrs Weasley had found both Charlie and Percy and the whole Weasley group plus Harry were on their way out of King's cross.

They all piled into an old Ford Angila, how they fitted Harry had no idea but he guessed that one of the enchantments allowed for more space to be inside. Harry was squeezed between Fred and Ginny while Mrs Weasley took the wheel.

Throughout the journey Harry and Fred talked about everything and nothing, occasionally they tried to involve Ginny but she'd either nod or shake her head and refused to speak. This was reportedly out of character for the small girl.

The journey which must have taken over an hour soon finished and Mrs Weasley parked the car outside the Burrow, all the while grumbling about how she hated driving "that death trap her husband had bought."

As soon as the car was stationary Ginny shot out, climbing over Percy who was sitting on her other side and was next to the door, and ran to the house.

At this point both Fred and George broke down into laughter.

"Fred, George, don't tease your sister!" Mrs Weasley snapped as she got out of the car.

"What was that about?" Harry asked when they'd left the car and the twins could breath again.

"I'm sorry Harry, we knew it was bad but we didn't know it was that bad!" George said between laboured breaths.

"What's bad?" Harry demanded.

"Ginny." Fred said, "She has a crush on you. She dreams of marrying the boy-who-lived."

Harry groaned, causing the twins to laugh again.

"Does she really or are you pulling my leg?" He wouldn't have put it past the twins to set this up via owl post.

"Very real!" George said gleefully.

"Sorry Harry!" Fred said without a hint of remorse.

Harry grumbled about the unfairness of his life. "But why, I don't even get why she'd like me."

"Oh come on Harry that one's easy: you're the boy-who-lived, you stopped You-Know-Who saving us all. What isn't there to like?" Fred said patronisingly.

"You know it probably didn't help that you're still morphed into that form with all the muscles and now Angelina's shown you how to make your clothes fit, you no longer look like the scrawny got we all know and love." George said, just as condescendingly.

Once he'd heard that Harry immediately went back to his 'base' form, that's what Tonks called his normal body, letting his 'scrawny' self show through his now slightly loose clothing. This just made the twins laugh more.

"Oh shut up, prats!" Harry said before walking towards the house. Secretly hoping that the twins would catch up as he had no idea where to go once he was inside. Luckily they did.

"One more word of warning, Harry, Dad's a muggle nut. Expect to be questioned about everything." He didn't know which twin said it, they were still behind him, but he would have guessed George, he pronounced his 't's with a harsher sound than Fred.

* * *

The Burrow was different to every other building Harry had ever been in, let alone seen.

The outside of the house looked like it hadn't been built all at the same time. Like they'd suddenly needed a new floor so they'd made one and dropped it on top of the old one. And they certainly hadn't dropped these new floors precisely. Almost every floor had an over hung the last in some way off enough that it looked like another new floor had been slotted in next to it. Harry was certain that if it wasn't for magic the Burrow would have fallen down a long time ago.

The inside however was even quirkier. While the ground floor seemed to work and flow from the kitchen to the dining room to the living room and then outside, there was one oddity. A staircase had been placed dead centre of the house, despite various walls that had been in the way at the time. The stairs spiralled upwards in a square shape through even that wasn't regular as the house got taller. All the stairs squeaked in some fashion but all were ridiculously loud. Some of the upper floors weren't quite flat and the toilet flush could reportedly be heard all over the house.

And this was before you take in the magic that kept the house moving as well. Pots and pans cleaned themselves in the sink, while a jumper with a G on it was knitted by floating needles.

"It's not much, but it's home." Fred said, munching on a piece of bread he'd taken from the side.

"It's brilliant!" Harry said beaming at his friend.

Fred and George's warning became, while not overly useful, apparent later that evening.

"And you were raised by juggles, correct?" Mr Weasley asked once introductions were aside.

"Yes, sir." Harry replied having found some adults to be a touchy with titles, mainly his potions teacher.

"What is exactly the function of a rubber duck?" He asked.

Then over dinner there was: "How do muggle's use a fellytone?", "Why don't Muggle women use aftershave?", "What is a plug for?", "Why do muggles feel the need to access the Internet?", "What is the Internet?", "What is the function of a stapler?" Etc.

After dinner Mrs Weasley managed to drag Mr Weasley away from Harry who then took up a seat in the living room trying to get used to the bloated feeling after eating so much: Weasley meals were massive. The twins were playing exploding snap with Charlie and Ron. Ginny had run up stairs as soon as dinner had finished so she was nowhere to be seen.

Bill took up a seat opposite Harry in the living room. Bill was, well, cool. His Ginger hair was longer than the other boys and he was wearing a leather, dragon leather according to George, jacket and he had a gang hanging from his ear. He looked rebellious and the way he managed to shrug off Mrs Weasley's rant about his appearance only added to his calm demeanour.

"I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Bill." He said, reaching out his hand.

Harry smiled and shook the offered hand. "I'm Harry."

"Yer, I knew that." Bill said with a chuckle. "So you're friends with my twin brothers, then. They causing much trouble at Hogwarts."

At this Harry's smile got bigger. "Oh loads, though don't tell your mum I said that." He added as he checked over his shoulder to make sure Mrs Weasley hadn't heard.

Bill laughed again. "Don't worry your secret is safe with me. I was hardly innocent myself at Hogwarts."

"But Fred said you were head boy!"

"Well, yes I was but just because I didn't get caught much didn't mean I didn't get up to all sorts of stuff mum wouldn't approve of."

The two shared a laugh before falling into silence.

After a couple of minutes watching the game of exploding snap, Bill said, "You know Ginny has a crush on you, right?"

Harry looked at Bill, he looked very serious, verging on overly protective, about his sister crush and was going to drop the subject of her crush very easily.

"Yes, Fred and George told me about it when I got it." Harry told the older boy. "Though it sounds like it's more of a crush on the boy-who-lived rather than just Harry." He tried to sound not very annoyed by the legend around him, it was everywhere he went: he heard whispers at Hogwarts, in diagon alley people openly came up to him and congratulated him, on platform nine and three quarters other people's parents stared at him from afar. But his annoyance must have slipped through as Bill cracked a grin.

"So that whole thing annoys you, huh? That's a good thing, it means you're not a prick." Bill said causing Harry to grin back him.

Bill reached into his bag and pulled out two bottles. "This is butterbeer. It's a non-alcoholic drink that's very popular with underage wizards and for good reason: it tastes bloody brilliant." He said as he passed Harry one of the pair. "Now how are you going to get rid of Ginny's crush on the boy-who-lived?"

"Errm, I don't really know." Harry said sheepishly before taking a first cautious sip of the butterbeer Bill had given him, and Bill had been right it was amazing.

"Well how about we bounce ideas off of each other? We can work it out together." Bills suggested.

Harry beamed, "I like that idea."

"Good, now to start off, I think you need to separate the boy-who-lived and Harry in Ginny's mind, yes?" Bill said, "But how we do it is key."

"I could try and become friends with her." Harry suggested, sending Bill a questioning glance.

Bill nodded, "That's a good shout, but how do you do it? You're eleven and she's eight, that's a large age gap to overcome. You'd need to have something to bond over."

Harry nodded. Going through all his conversations with the twins trying to pick out Ginny's interests that he shared with her.

"She likes Quidditch, right?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Harpies fan." Bill said slowly wondering where he was taking this.

"Does she fly?"

"No, mum and dad never taught her and we've never let her join in with us cause she's too small." Bill said, thinking he could see where this was going.

"I've been told I'm quite good on a broom, what if I teach her to fly?" Harry asked.

"That could work." Said Bill. "Though we'd have to get it so she was outside to see you fly first. She wouldn't let you teach her if she didn't think you were good enough."

Harry nodded, "I think Charlie wants to see how I fly, the twins have been talking to him about me since our last flying lesson."

"Then, I'll talk to Charlie once he's lost this game of snap and we'll do it tomorrow. We can't have Ginny running away from you all holiday!" Bill said jokingly.

* * *

After a night shared in Ron's room, Mrs Weasley had given the option of bunking with Percy or Ron and he'd chosen Ron and hoped the younger boy wasn't an arse, Harry trudged his way to the kitchen to find breakfast. Which took a long time, Ron's room was on the top floor.

Mrs Weasley was at the stove frying bacon and eggs. It smelled heavenly.

"Go sit at the table, Harry dear, it'll all be ready in a minute." The Weasley matriarch said with a smile.

Harry made his way through to the dining table to find that, aside from himself, only Ron was missing. Percy was talking to Mr Weasley about the Ministry. Bill and Charlie were talking in hushed tones, probably about what they'd discussed last night, Harry thought. Ginny, Fred and George had been talking about what it had been like at Hogwarts until Harry walked in and Ginny stopped talking.

"Oh Harry you're here we did wonder why Ginny stopped talking." Fred said causing his sister to go red and George to hide his silent laughter behind his hand.

"Don't tease your sister, boys" Mr Weasley said without turning away from Percy.

Smiling at what seemed to be a practiced response, Harry took the seat next to Ginny, not wanting to sit next to Mr Weasley after the affair that dinner had become or Percy for more obvious reasons and there were no other free seats.

"Hi Ginny, good night?" He asked as he sat down, it had worked well with breaking the ice with Angelina and Alicia a month ago why not now?

Instead of wording a reply, Ginny quickly nodded her head. So fast in fact Harry thought her head might fall off of her neck.

Internally sighing at the girl, he turned to Fred and George. "What about you guys?"

"Oh yep, it was great." Fred said.

"Hogwarts is great and all, but it's not home." George said adding to his brothers statement.

Harry and the twins kept talking across Ginny who refused to say anything.

As breakfast was brought to the table, Ron appeared from the staircase mumbling "Food!"

Breakfast was another massive meal and Harry was beginning to wonder where the Weasleys put it all.

Harry was standing up when Mrs Weasley said, "Harry have you gotten even skinny since yesterday?"

Harry looked down at his body, he did look skinnier. "Oh damn, I forgot to keep track, I'm not usually this skinny."

"What do you mean keep track?" Ginny asked before slapping her hands over her mouth she had forgotten that she wasn't talking in front of Harry.

"Oh yeah, I'm a metamorphmagus. I sometimes forget to look like I did the day before." Harry explained.

"A metamor-what?" Ron asked eloquently.

Harry smiled remembering being asked a similar question by Alicia. "It means I can change my appearance without using any outwards sign of magic." Harry said.

Ron looked confused so Harry decided to show him by cycling his hair colour through all the colours of the rainbow.

"Oh so you're like Tonks." Charlie said, not noticing his mother's head snap towards him when he said his girlfriends name.

"Yep, exactly like Tonks." Harry said deciding to keep the fact that he was more powerful than Tonks a secret. "She's being giving me lessons to stop things like this," he gestured to his smaller than usual gut, "from happening."

"She did mention that Dumbledore had asked her to help out a younger metamorphmagus but she wouldn't tell me who it was." Charlie said.

"I asked her not to tell anyone, sorry." Harry told Charlie.

"Don't worry, it's no problem." Charlie said before a smile appeared on his face. "Now the twins have been saying how good you are on a broom, they reckon you're better than me. D'you want to go test that?"

"You're on!" Harry replied with a smile just as wide.

Charlie lead the way out of the kitchen followed by Harry and then the rest of the Weasley siblings. They went to the Weasley's orchard via the broom shed where all the Weasleys, minus Ginny who didn't have one, got their brooms. The orchard consisted of a large field surrounded by tall coppiced trees that stopped any curious muggles from seeing any of the Weasley's flying.

"One of you guys give Harry your broom, I want to see how good he is first." Charlie shouted at the group. He was already in the air sitting on his broom above the middle of the orchard.

Fred passed Harry his broom, saying "If you break this I'll be expecting a nice Christmas present. Now go woop Charlie's arse." With a grin.

Taking the broom as he shook his head, Harry pushed off of the ground and shot into the air. He hover just in front of Charlie.

"Come on then Potter, show us what you've got." Charlie shouted across to him. Grinning Harry started accelerating as fast as the old broom would allow him to, all the while steering the broom for a head on collision with the older boy.

At the last second, Harry flipped himself upside down and flew past Charlie broom-to-broom. Once clear of Charlie Harry started to push the broom away from him forcing the batter piece of wood to start to climb.

As Harry reached a vertical climb, he braked sharply allowing his feet to be ripped from their grip on the broom in the process. His body now inverted and his only contact with the broom being his hands, Harry felt the broom begin to free fall. Forcing the broom to accelerate towards the ground, Harry quickly regained his footing as the broom was pushed flush against his body by the air resistance it was facing.

Seeing the ground get closer and closer, Harry finally pulled up at the last possible moment about five metres from the ground. His feet were about a metre and a half away from the ground but he didn't know the broom so he hadn't of wanted to test the limits and find himself with a mouthful of dirt. Flying passed Charlie again, Harry stopped the broom by spinning the tail around behind him.

Charlie looked impressed but Harry was more shocked by the twins and Ron applauding and cheering.

"And that's only the second time you've been on a broom?" Charlie said as he pulled up along side Harry.

Harry nodded.

"Come and find me when we're back at Hogwarts, I'll give you some tips on how to get better Well, as long as you don't mind breaking a couple of rules." He said with a grin before he called down to the people on the ground. "Quidditch?"

Harry gave Fred his broom back and settled on the ground as all six brothers played a hectic game of three on three quidditch. Seeing Ginny sitting not too far away Harry began operation crush destroyer. That's what he'd called it in his head and he wasn't about to tell any of the Weasleys that, even just the twins would laugh at him for days.

Shuffling discreetly towards to Ginny to close the distance so he wouldn't have to shout, it would be bad if her brothers heard about it. Apparently both Ron and Percy didn't think their sister should fly and the twins were on the fence.

"Don't you fly, Ginny?" Harry asked when he was about an arm's length or two away.

The girl squeaked, only now realising her hero crush had gotten so close. She shook her head but Harry pretended not to see.

"Sorry what was that? I didn't catch it?" Harry said smiling at the smaller person.

"No, I er don't have a broom." She said quietly.

"Oh right, neither do I." Harry said nodding sympathetically. "Do your brother lend you theirs to have a go on?"

She shook her head again, and Harry pretended not to see, again.

"You need to speak up Ginny I'm struggling to hear what you're saying." Harry said.

"No, they won't let me have a go." She said, louder than before. "They've been told by mum that's it's not proper!" She seemed to spit the last word and Harry smiled: they were making progress.

"Well that's a bit hypocritical!" Harry said in outrage, genuinely annoyed to hear they'd have done that.

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked, her shyness forgotten.

"Well, friends of mine, Fred and George's as well, Angelina and Alicia love to fly. They're girls and Fred and George don't stop them. And I know for a fact that Tonks loves to fly. She tells me all about how she and Charlie go flying all over Hogwarts ground at night before she remembers I'm eleven and she's supposed to be teaching me." Harry smiled remembering the times when Tonks that she was supposed to be teaching a lesson.

"No way!" Ginny said, very real anger shining from her eyes.

"Yes way!" Harry replied, feeling very pleased with the way he'd turned that around.

"I can't believe they'd do that!" Ginny raged. "How could those… RRRR."

"Why don't we get them back?" Harry suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I may not be as experienced as the twins when it comes to pranking but I've picked up a couple of things over the term I've known them. Like where they keep their secret supply of dung bombs." Harry said with a grin. "Do you want to get your brothers back?"

"Definitely!"

* * *

It took all of ten minutes for Harry and Ginny to get back to the Burrow, get the dung bombs, place them under all the Weasley boys pillows so that they'd go off when they went to bed and get back to the orchard. The six brothers looked like they hadn't even noticed their absence and were still playing a chaotic game of quidditch.

"You know," Harry said, "even though we've set a trap for your brothers it still doesn't feel fair."

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked.

"Well you still don't get to fly, do you." Harry said.

"Oh, yeah I don't, do I?' Ginny said realising the truth of it as well.

"Hey! Why don't I teach you to fly?" Harry said hoping she'd take to the loose plan he and Bill had prepared.

"You'd do that?" Ginny asked.

"Of course, we're friends right?" Harry said laughing at how shocked Ginny looked.

"Thanks Harry!" She cried as she hugged Harry, before realising who it was and pulling away, her face glowing red.

Maybe her crush wasn't completely gone.

* * *

Hey, thanks for reading the most recent instalment of Changing Shape I'm still going with it and I don't think I'll be stopping any time soon.  
However I've been thinking ahead for this story and I've sort of decided on what cannon years I'll use and what years I'll use my own ideas for

1st year: Quirrel  
2nd year: own ideas  
3rd year: Sirius Black  
4th year: Chamber of Secrets  
5th year: own ideas  
6th year: Tri-wizard's mess  
7th year: Umbridge

If you have any ideas just leave a review or PM me.  
Plus pairing ideas, I'm leaning towards Harry being Hetro-flexible (swinging both ways but ending up with a girl) but I cannot decide on a definite pairing for any of the others  
Thanks

An Average White Writer


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